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THE BUCCANEERS IN THE 
. WEST INDIES IN THE 
XVII CENTURY 




FROM CHARLEVOI 




«L-JKm 



THE BUCCANEERS IN THE 

WEST INDIES IN THE 

XVII CENTURY 

BY 

G. H. HARING 



WITH TEN MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 



NEW YORK 

E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY 

31 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 

1910 



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First Published in igio 



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PREFACE 

THE principal facts about the exploits of the English 
and French buccaneers of the seventeenth century 
in the West Indies are sufficiently well known to 
modern readers. The French Jesuit historians of the 
Antilles have left us many interesting details of their 
mode of life, and Exquemelin's history of the freebooters 
has been reprinted numerous times both in France and 
in England. Based upon these old, contemporary nar- 
ratives, modern accounts are issued from the press with 
astonishing regularity, some of them purporting to be 
serious history, others appearing in the more popular and 
entertaining guise of romances. All, however, are alike 
in confining themselves for their information to what may 
almost be called the traditional sources — Exquemelin, the 
Jesuits, and perhaps a few narratives like those of Dampier 
and Wafer. To write another history of these privateers 
or pirates, for they have, unfortunately, more than once 
deserved that name, may seem a rather fruitless under- 
taking. It is justified only by the fact that there exist 
numerous other documents bearing upon the subject, 
documents which till now have been entirely neglected. 
Exquemelin has been reprinted, the story of the 
buccaneers has been re-told, yet no writer, whether 
editor or historian, has attempted to estimate the trust- 
worthiness of the old tales by comparing them with these 
other sources, or to show the connection between the 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

buccaneers and the history of the English colonies in the 
West Indies. The object of this volume, therefore, is 
not only to give a narrative, according to the most 
authentic, available sources, of the more brilliant exploits 
of these sea-rovers, but, what is of greater interest and 
importance, to trace the policy pursued toward them 
by the English and French Governments. 

The "Buccaneers in the West Indies" was presented 
as a thesis to the Board of Modern History of Oxford 
University in May 1909 to fulfil the requirements for 
•--4he-<degree of Bachelor of Letters. It was written under 
the supervision of C. H. Firth, Regius Professor of Modern 
History in Oxford, and to him the writer owes a lasting 
debt of gratitude for his unfailing aid and sympathy 
during the course of preparation. 

C. H. H. 



i 



Oxford, 1910 



CONTENTS 

Preface 



CHAP. PAGB 

I. Introductory — 

Part I.— The Spanish Colonial System . i 

Part II.— The Freebooters of the Sixteenth 

Century 28 

II. The Beginnings of the Buccaneers . . 57 

III. The Conquest of Jamaica 85 

IV. Tortuga, 1 65 5-1 664 113 

V. Porto Bello and Panama. . .120 

VI. The Government Suppresses the Buccaneers 200 

VII. The Buccaneers Turn Pirate .... 232 

Appendices 2 73'74 

Bibliography 275 

Index 289 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Map of the West Indies .... Frontispiece 

From Charlevoix' Histoire de S. Domingue. 

FACING 
PAGE 

Spanish Periagua i 

From Exquemelin's Histoire des Aventuriers Trevoux, 
1744. 

Buccaneer Vessels ....... 76 

From Exquemelin's Histoire des Aventuriers Trevoitx, 
1744. 

A Correct Map of Jamaica 85 

From the Royal Magazine, 1 760. 

Map of San Domingo . . . . . . . 86 

From Charlevoix' Histoire de S. Domingue. 

Plan of the Bay and Town of Portobelo . . 154 

From Prevost d'Exiles' Voyages. 

The Isthmus of Darien 164 

From Exquemelin's Bucaniers, 1684-5. 

' The Battel between the Spaniards and the 
pyrats or buccaniers before the cltty of 
Panama ' ........ 1 66 

From Exquemelin's Bucaniers of America, 1684-5. 

Plan of Vera-Cruz 242 

From Charlevoix' Histoire de S. Do?ningue, 1730. 

Plan of the Town and Roadstead of Cartagena 

and of the Forts 264 

From Baron de Pontis' Relation de ce qui c 1 est fait la 
prise de Carthagene, Bruxelles, 1698. 



THE BUCCANEERS IN THE 

WEST INDIES IN THE 

XVII CENTURY 

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTORY 
I. — THE SPANISH COLONIAL SYSTEM 

AT the time of the discovery of America the Spaniards, 
as M. Leroy-Beaulieu has remarked, were perhaps 
less fitted than any other nation of western Europe 
for the task of American colonization. Whatever may 
have been the political role thrust upon them in the six- 
teenth century by the Hapsburg marriages, whatever 
certain historians may say of the grandeur and nobility of 
the Spanish national character, Spain was then neither 
rich nor populous, nor industrious. For centuries she had 
been called upon to wage a continuous warfare with the 
Moors, and during this time had not only found little 
leisure to cultivate the arts of peace, but had acquired a 
disdain for manual work which helped to mould her 
colonial administration and influenced all her subsequent 
history. And when the termination of the last of these 
wars left her mistress of a united Spain, and the exploita- 
tion of her own resources seemed to require all the energies 
she could muster, an entire new hemisphere was suddenly 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

thrown open to her, and given into her hands by a papal 
decree to possess and populate. Already weakened by 
the exile of the most sober and industrious of her popula- 
tion, the Jews ; drawn into a foreign policy for which she 
had neither the means nor the inclination ; instituting at 
home an economic policy which was almost epileptic in 
its consequences, she found her strength dissipated, and 
gradually sank into a condition of economic and political 
impotence. 

Christopher Columbus, a Genoese sailor in the service 
of the Castilian Crown, wishing to find a western route by 
sea to India and especially to Zipangu (Japan), the magic 
land described by the Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, 
landed on 12th October 1492, on "Guanahani," one of the 
Bahama Islands. From "Guanahani" he passed on to 
other islands of the same group, and thence to Hispaniola,, 
Tortuga and Cuba. Returning to Spain in March 1493,, 
he sailed again in September of the same year with 
seventeen vessels and 1 500 persons, and this time keeping 
farther to the south, sighted Porto Rico and some of the 
Lesser Antilles, founded a colony on Hispaniola, and 
discovered Jamaica in 1494. On a third voyage in 1498 
he discovered Trinidad, and coasted along the shores of 
South America from the Orinoco River to the island of 
Margarita. After a fourth and last voyage in 1502-04, 
Columbus died at Valladolid in 1506, in the firm belief 
that he had discovered a part of the Continent of Asia. 

The entire circle of the Antilles having thus been 
revealed before the end of the fifteenth century, the 
Spaniards pushed forward to the continent. While 
Hojida, Vespucci, Pinzon and de Solis were exploring the 
eastern coast from La Plata to Yucatan, Ponce de Leon in 
1 5 12 discovered Florida, and in 15 13 Vasco Nunez de 



\ 



INTRODUCTORY 

Balboa descried the Pacific Ocean from the heights of 
Darien, revealing for the first time the existence of a new 
continent. In 1520 Magellan entered the Pacific through 
the strait which bears his name, and a year later was 
killed in one of the Philippine Islands. Within the next 
twenty years Cortez had conquered the realm of Mon- 
tezuma, and Pizarro the empire of Peru ; and thus within 
the space of two generations all of the West Indies, North 
America to California and the Carolinas, all of South 
America except Brazil, which the error of Cabral gave to 
the Portuguese, and in the east the Philippine Islands and 
New Guinea passed under the sway of the Crown of 
Castile. 

Ferdinand and Isabella in 1493 had consulted with 
several persons of eminent learning to find out whether it 
was necessary to obtain the investiture of the Pope for 
their newly-discovered possessions, and all were of opinion 
that this formality was unnecessary. 1 Nevertheless, on 
3rd May 1493, a bull was granted by Pope Alexander VI. > 
which divided the sovereignty of those parts of the world 
not possessed by any Christian prince between Spain and 
Portugal by a meridian line 100 leagues west of the 
Azores or of Cape Verde. Later Spanish writers made 
much of this papal gift; yet, as Georges Scelle points 
out, 2 it is possible that this bull was not so much a deed of 
conveyance, investing the Spaniards with the proprietor- 
ship of America, as it was an act of ecclesiastical juris- 
diction according them, on the strength of their acquired 
right and proven Catholicism, a monopoly as it were in the 
propagation of the faith. At that time, even Catholic 

1 Herrera : Decades II. I, p. 4, cited in Scelle: la Traite Negriere, I. 
p. 6. Note 2. 

2 Scelle, op. cit., I. pp. 6-9. 

3 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

princes were no longer accustomed to seek the Pope's 
sanction when making a new conquest, and certainly in 
the domain of public law the Pope was not considered to 
have temporal jurisdiction over the entire world. He did, 
however, intervene in temporal matters when they directly 
influenced spiritual affairs, and of this the propagation of 
the faith was an instance. As the compromise between 
Spain and Portugal was very indecisive, owing to the 
difference in longitude of the Azores and Cape Verde, a 
second Act was signed on 7th June 1494, which placed the 
line of demarcation 270 leagues farther to the west. 

The colonization of the Spanish Indies, on its social 
and administrative side, presents a curious contrast. On 
the one hand we see the Spanish Crown, with high ideals of 
order and justice, of religious and political unity, extend- 
ing to its ultramarine possessions its faith, its language, 
its laws and its administration ; providing for the welfare 
of the aborigines with paternal solicitude; endeavouring 
to restrain and temper the passions of the conquerors ; 
building churches and founding schools and monasteries ; 
in a word, trying to make its colonies an integral part of 
the Spanish monarchy, "une societe vieille dans u* ~ 
contree neuve." Some Spanish writers, it is true, have 
exaggerated the virtues of their old colonial system ; yet 
that system had excellences which we cannot afford to 
despise. If the Spanish kings had not choked their 
government with procrastination and routine ; if they had 
only taken their task a bit less seriously and had not tried 
to apply too strictly to an empty continent the paternal 
administration of an older country ; we might have been 
privileged to witness the development and operation of as 
complete and benign a system of colonial government as 
has been devised in modern times. The public initiative 

4 



INTRODUCTORY 

of the Spanish government, and the care with which it 
selected its colonists, compare very favourably with the 
opportunism of the English and the French, who colonized 
by chance private activity and sent the worst elements of 
their population, criminals and vagabonds, to people their 
new settlements across the sea. However much we may 
deprecate the treatment of the Indians by the conquista- 
dores, we must not forget that the greater part of the 
population of Spanish America to-day is still Indian, and 
that no other colonizing people have succeeded like the 
Spaniards in assimilating and civilizing the natives. The 
code of laws which the Spaniards gradually evolved for 
the rule of their transmarine provinces, was, in spite of 
defects which are visible only to the larger experience of 
the present day, one of the wisest, most humane and best- 
co-ordinated of any to this day published for any colony. 
Although the Spaniards had to deal with a large popula- 
tion of barbarous natives, the word "conquest" was sup- 
pressed in legislation as ill-sounding, " because the peace is 
to be sealed," they said, " not with the sound of arms, but 
with charity and good-will." * 

The actual results, however, of the social policy of the 
Spanish kings fell far below the ideals they had set for 
themselves. The monarchic spirit of the crown was so 
strong that it crushed every healthy, expansive tendency 
in the new countries. It burdened the colonies with a 
numerous, privileged nobility, who congregated mostly in 
the larger towns and set to the rest of the colonists a 
pernicious example of idleness and luxury. In its zeal 
for the propagation of the Faith, the Crown constituted 

1 "Por cuanto los pacificaciones no se han de hacer con ruido de armas> 
sino con caridad y bueo modo." — Recop. de leyes . • de las Indias, lib. 
vii. tit. i. 

5 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

a powerfully endowed Church, which, while it did splendid 
service in converting and civilizing the natives, engrossed 
much of the land in the form of mainmort, and filled the 
new world with thousands of idle, unproductive, and often 
licentious friars. With an innate distrust and fear of 
individual initiative, it gave virtual omnipotence to royal 
officials and excluded all Creoles from public employment. 
In this fashion was transferred to America the crushing 
political and ecclesiastical absolutism of the mother 
country. Self-reliance and independence of thought or 
action on the part of the Creoles was discouraged, 
divisions and factions among them were encouraged and 
educational opportunities restricted, and the American- 
born Spaniards gradually sank into idleness and lethargy, 
indifferent to all but childish honours and distinctions 
and petty local jealousies. To make matters worse, 
many of the Spaniards who crossed the seas to the 
American colonies came not to colonize, not to trade 
or cultivate the soil, so much as to extract from the 
natives a tribute of gold and silver. The Indians, instead 
of being protected and civilized, were only too olwn 
reduced to serfdom and confined to a laborious routine 
for which they had neither the aptitude nor the strength ; 
while the government at home was too distant to 
interfere effectively in their behalf. Driven by cruel 
taskmasters they died by thousands from exhaustion 
and despair, and in some places entirely disappeared. 

The Crown of Castile, moreover, in the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries sought to extend Spanish commerce 
and monopolize all the treasure of the Indies by means 
of a rigid and complicated commercial system. Yet in 
the end it saw the trade of the New World pass into 
the hands of its rivals, its own marine reduced to a 



INTRODUCTORY 

shadow of its former strength, its crews and its vessels 
supplied by merchants from foreign lands, and its riches 
diverted at their very source. 

This Spanish commercial system was based upon 
two distinct principles. One was the principle of 
colonial exclusivism, according to which all the trade of 
the colonies was to be reserved to the mother country. 
Spain on her side undertook to furnish the colonies with 
all they required, shipped upon Spanish vessels ; the 
colonies in return were to produce nothing but raw 
materials and articles which did not compete with the 
home products with which they were to be exchanged. 
The second principle was the. mercantile doctrine which, 
considering as wealth itself the precious metals which 
are but its symbol, laid down that money ought, by 
every means possible, to be imported and hoarded, never 
exported. 1 This latter theory, the fallacy of which has 
long been established, resulted in the endeavour of the 
Spanish Hapsburgs to conserve the wealth of the country, 
not by the encouragement of industry, but by the increase 
and complexity of imposts. The former doctrine, adopted 
by a non-producing country which was in no position to 
fulfil its part in the colonial compact, led to the most 
disastrous consequences. 

While the Spanish Crown was aiming to concentrate 
and monopolize its colonial commerce, the prosperity of 
Spain itself was slowly sapped by reason of these mis- 
taken economic theories. Owing to the lack of work- 
men, the increase of imposts, and the prejudice against 
the mechanic arts, industry was being ruined ; while 
the increased depopulation of the realm, the mainmort 
of ecclesiastical lands, the majorats of the nobility and 

' Scelle. op. cit. y I. p. 35. 
7 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

the privileges of the Mesta, brought agriculture rapidly 
into decay. The Spaniards, consequently, could not 
export the products of their manufacture to the 
colonies, when they did not have enough to supply their 
own needs. To make up for this deficiency their 
merchants were driven to have recourse to foreigners, 
to whom they lent their names in order to elude a law 
which forbade commerce between the colonies and traders 
of other nations. In return for the manufactured articles 
of the English, Dutch and French, and of the great com- 
mercial cities like Genoa and Hamburg, they were obliged 
to give their own raw materials and the products of the 
Indies — wool, silks, wines and dried fruits, cochineal, dye- 
woods, indigo and leather, and finally, indeed, ingots of 
gold and silver. The trade in Spain thus in time became 
a mere passive machine. Already in 1545 it had been 
found impossible to furnish in less than six years the 
goods demanded by the merchants of Spanish America. 
At the end of the seventeenth century, foreigners were 
supplying five-sixths of the manufactures consumed 
in Spain itself, and engrossed nine-tenths of that 
American trade which the Spaniards had sought so 
carefully to monopolize. 1 

1 Weiss : L'Espagne depuis Philippe II. jusqu'aux Bourbons., II. pp. 204. 
and 215. Not till 1722 was legislative sanction given to this practice. 

M. Lemonnet wrote to Colbert in 1670 concerning this commerce : — 
" Quelque perquisition qu'on ait faite dans ce dernier temps aux Indes pour 
decouvrir les biens des Francois, ils ont plustost souffert la prison que de 
rien declarer . . . toute les merchandises qu'on leur donne a porter aux 
Indes sont chargees sous le nom d'Espagnols, que bien souvent n'en ont pas 
connaissance, ne jugeant pas a propos de leur en parler, afin de tenir les 
affaires plus secretes et qu'il n'y ait que le commissionaire a le savoir, lequel 
en rend compte a son retour des Indes, directement a celui qui en a donne la 
cargaison en confiance sans avoir nul egard pour ceux au nom desquels le 
chargement a ete fait, et lorsque ces commissionaires reviennent des Indes 
soit sur le flottes galions ou navires particuliers, ils apportent leur argent dans 



INTRODUCTORY 

In the colonies the most striking feature of Spanish 
economic policy was its wastefulness. After the conquest 
of the New World, it was to the interest of the Spaniards 
to gradually wean the native Indians from barbarism by 
teaching them the arts and sciences of Europe, to en- 
courage such industries as were favoured by the soil, and 
to furnish the growing colonies with those articles which 
they could not produce themselves, and of which they 
stood in need. Only thus could they justify their mono- 
poly of the markets of Spanish America. The same test, 

leurs coffres, la pluspart entre pont et sans connoissement." (Margry : Re- 
lations et memoires inedits pour servir a l'histcire de la France dans les pays 
d'outremer, p. 185.) 

The importance to the maritime powers of preserving and protecting this 
clandestine trade is evident, especially as the Spanish government frequently 
found it a convenient instrument for retaliating upon those nations against 
which it harboured some grudge. All that was necessary was to sequester 
the vessels and goods of merchants belonging to the nation at which it wished 
to strike. This happened frequently in the course of the seventeenth century. 
Thus Lerma in 1601 arrested the French merchants in Spain to revenge him- 
self on Henry IV. In 1624 Olivares seized 160 Dutch vessels. The goods 
of Genoese merchants were sequestered by Philip IV. in 1644 ; and in 1684 
French merchandize was again seized, and Mexican traders whose storehouses 
contained such goods were fined 500,000 ecus, although the same storehouses 
contained English and Dutch goods which were left unnoticed. The fine 
was later restored upon Admiral d'Estrees' threat to bombard Cadiz. The 
solicitude of the French government for this trade is expressed in a letter of 
Colbert to the Marquis de Villars, ambassador at Madrid, dated 5th February 
1672 : — " II est tellement necessaire d'avoir soin d'assister les particuliers qui 
font leur trafic en Espagne, pour maintenir le plus important commerce que 
nous ayons, que je suis persuade que vous ferez toutes les instances qui pour- 
ront dependre de vous ... en sorte que cette protection produira des avan- 
tages considerables au commerce des sujets de Sa Majeste " (ibid., p. 188). 

Cf. also the instructions of Louis XIV. to the Comte d'Estrees, 1st April 
1680. The French admiral was to visit all the ports of the Spaniards in the 
West Indies, especially Cartagena and San Domingo ; and to be always in- 
formed of the situation and advantages of these ports, and of the facilities and 
difficulties to be met with in case of an attack upon them ; so that the 
Spaniards might realise that if they failed to do justice to the French mer- 
chants on the return of the galleons, his Majesty was always ready to force 
them to do so, either by attacking these galleons, or by capturing one of their 
West Indian ports {ibid.). 

9 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

indeed, may be applied to every other nation which 
adopted the exclusivist system. Queen Isabella wished 
to carry out this policy, introduced into the newly-dis- 
covered islands wheat, the olive and the vine, and accli- 
matized many of the European domestic animals. 1 Her 
efforts, unfortunately, were not seconded by her successors, 
nor by the Spaniards who went to the Indies. In time 
the government itself, as well as the colonist, came to be 
concerned, not so much with the agricultural products of 
the Indies, but with the return of the precious metals. 
Natives were made to work the mines, while many regions 
adapted to agriculture, Guiana, Caracas and Buenos 
Ayres, were neglected, and the peopling of the colonies 
by Europeans was slow. The emperor, Charles V., did 
little to stem this tendency, but drifted along with the 
tide. Immigration was restricted to keep the colonies 
free from the contamination of heresy and of foreigners. 
The Spanish population was concentrated in cities, and 
the country divided into great estates granted by th j 
crown to the families of the conquistador es or to favourites 
at court. The immense areas of Peru, Buenos Ayres and 
Mexico were submitted to the most unjust and arbitrary 
regulations, with no object but to stifle growing industry 
and put them in absolute dependence upon the metropolis. 
It was forbidden to exercise the trades of dyer, fuller, 
weaver, shoemaker or hatter, and the natives were com- 
pelled to buy of the Spaniards even the stuffs they wore 
on their backs. Another ordinance prohibited the cultiva- 
tion of the vine and the olive except in Peru and Chili, 
and even these provinces might not send their oil and 
wine to Panama, Gautemala or any other place which 
could be supplied from Spain. 2 To maintain the com- 

1 Weiss, op. cit., II. p. 205. ' Ibid., II. p. 206. 

10 



INTRODUCTORY 

mercial monopoly, legitimate ports of entry in Spanish 
America were made few and far apart — for Mexico, Vera 
Cruz, for New Granada, the town of Cartagena. The 
islands and most of the other provinces were supplied by 
uncertain "vaisseaux de registre," while Peru and Chili, 
finding all direct commerce by the Pacific or South Sea 
interdicted, were obliged to resort to the fever-ridden town 
of Porto Bello, where the mortality was enormous and the 
prices increased tenfold. 

In Spain, likewise, the colonial commerce was re- 
stricted to one port — Seville. For in the estimation of 
the crown it was much more important to avoid being 
defrauded of its dues on import and export, than to 
permit the natural development of trade by those towns 
best fitted to acquire it. Another reason, prior in point 
of time perhaps, why Seville was chosen as the port 
for American trade, was that the Indies were regarded 
as the exclusive appanage of the crown of Castile, and 
of that realm Seville was then the chief mercantile city. 
It was not a suitable port, however, to be distinguished 
by so high a privilege. Only ships of less than 200 tons 
were able to cross the bar of San Lucar, and goods there- 
fore had to be transhipped — a disability which was soon 
felt when traffic and vessels became heavier. 1 The fact, 
nevertheless, that the official organization called the Casa 
de Contratacion was seated in Seville, together with the 
influence of the vested interests of the merchants whose 
prosperity depended upon the retention of that city 
as the one port for Indian commerce, were sufficient 
to bear down all opposition. The maritime towns 
of Galicia and Asturia, inhabited by better seamen 

1 0ppenheim : The Naval Tracts of Sir Wm. Monson. Vol. II. 
Appendix B., p. 316. 

11 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

and stronger races, often protested, and sometimes 
succeeded in obtaining a small share of the lucrative 
trade. 1 » But Seville retained its primacy until 171 7, 
in which year the Contratacion was transferred to 
Cadiz. 

The administration of the complex rules governing the 
commerce between Spain and her colonies was entrusted 
to two institutions located at Seville, — the Casa de Contra- 
taa'on, mentioned above, and the Consulado. The Casa de 
Contratacion, founded by royal decree as early as 1503, 
was both a judicial tribunal and a house of commerce. 
Nothing might be sent to the Indies without its consent ;; 
nothing might be brought back and landed, either on the 
account of merchants or of the King himself, without its 
authorization. It received all the revenues accruing from 
the Indies, not only the imposts on commerce, but also all 
the taxes remitted by colonial officers. As a consultative 
body it had the right to propose directly to the King 
anything which it deemed necessary to the developmt nt 
and organization of American commerce ; and as a tribunal 
it possessed an absolute competence over all crimes under 
the common law, and over all infractions of the ordinances 
governing the trade of the Indies, to the exclusion of 

1 In 1509, owing to the difficulties experienced by merchants in ascending 
the Guadalquivir, ships were given permission to load and register at Cadiz 
under the supervision of an inspector or " visitador," and thereafter commerce 
and navigation tended more and more to gravitate to that port. After 1529* 
in order to facilitate emigration to America, vessels were allowed to sail from 
certain other ports, notably San Sebastian, Bilboa, Coruna, Cartagena and 
Malaga. The ships might register in these ports, but were obliged always to 
make their return voyage to Seville. But either the cedilla was revoked, or 
was never made use of, for, according to Scelle, there are no known instances 
of vessels sailing to America from those towns. The only other exceptions 
were in favour of the Company of Guipuzcoa in 1728, to send ships from San 
Sebastian to Caracas, and of the Company of Galicia in 1734, to send two 
vessels annually to Campeache and Vera Cruz. (Scelle, op. cit. f I. pp. 48-49 
and notes. ) 

12 



INTRODUCTORY 

every ordinary court. Its jurisdiction began at the 
moment the passengers and crews embarked and the 
goods were put on board, and ended only when the return 
voyage and disembarkation had been completed. 1 The 
civil jurisdiction of the Casa was much more restricted 
and disputes purely commercial in character between the 
merchants were reserved to the Consulado, which was a 
tribunal of commerce chosen entirely by the merchants 
themselves. Appeals in certain cases might be carried to 
the Council of the Indies. 2 

The first means adopted by the northern maritime 
nations to appropriate to themselves a share of the riches 
of the New World was open, semi-piratical attack upon 
the Spanish argosies returning from those distant 
El Dorados. The success of the Norman and Breton 
corsairs, for it was the French, not the English, who 
started the game, gradually forced upon the Spaniards, 
as a means of protection, the establishment of great 
merchant fleets sailing periodically at long intervals and 
accompanied by powerful convoys. During the first half 
of the sixteenth century any ship which had fulfilled the 
conditions required for engaging in American commerce 
was allowed to depart alone and at any time of the year. 
From about 1526, however, merchant vessels were ordered 
to sail together, and by a cedula of July 1561, the system 
of fleets was made permanent and obligatory. This decree 
prohibited any ship from sailing alone to America from 
Cadiz or San Lucar on pain of forfeiture of ship and 

'Scelle,^. at., I. p. 36^ 

2 In Nov. 1530 Charles V., against the opposition of the Contratacion, 
•ordered the Council of the Indies to appoint a resident judge at Cadiz to 
replace the officers of the Casa there. This institution, called the "Juzgado 
de Indias," was, until the removal of the Casa to Cadiz in 1717, the source of 
constant disputes and irritation. 

13 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

cargo. 1 Two fleets were organized each year, one for 
Terra Firma going to Cartagena and Porto Bello, the other 
designed for the port of San Juan d'Ulloa (Vera Cruz) in 
New Spain. The latter, called the Flota, was commanded 
by an " almirante," and sailed for Mexico in the early 
summer so as to avoid the hurricane season and the 
" northers " of the Mexican Gulf. The former was usually 
called the galeones {anglice " galleons "), was commanded 
by a " general," and sailed from Spain earlier in the year,, 
between January and March. If it departed in March, it 
usually wintered at Havana and returned with the Flota 
in the following spring. Sometimes the two fleets sailed 
together and separated at Guadaloupe, Deseada or another 
of the Leeward Islands. 2 

The galleons generally consisted of from five to eight 
war-vessels carrying from forty to fifty guns, together with, 
several smaller, faster boats called " pataches," and a fleet 
of merchantmen varying in number in different years, In 
the time of Philip II. often as many as forty ships supplied 
Cartagena and Porto Bello, but in succeeding reigns,, 
although the population of the Indies was rapidly increas- 
ing, American commerce fell off so sadly that eight or ten 
were sufficient for all the trade of South and Central 
America. The general of the galleons, on his departure,, 
received from the Council of the Indies three sealed 
packets. The first, opened at the Canaries, contained the 
name of the island in the West Indies at which the fleet was 
first to call. The second was unsealed after the galleons. 

1 Scelle, of. cit., I. p. 52 and note ; Duro : Armada Espanola, I. p. 204. 

- The distinction between the Flota or fleet for New Spain and the- 
galleons intended for Terra Firma only began with the opening of the great 
silver mines of Potosi, the rich yields of which after 1557 made advisable an 
especial fleet for Cartagena and Nombre de Dios. (Oppenheim, II. 
Appendix B., p. 322.) 

14 



INTRODUCTORY 

arrived at Cartagena, and contained instructions for the 
fleet to return in the same year or to winter in America. 
In the third, left unopened until the fleet had emerged 
from the Bahama Channel on the homeward voyage, 
were orders for the route to the Azores and the islands 
they should touch in passing, usually Corvo and Flores or 
Santa Maria. 1 

The course of the galleons from San Lucar was south- 
west to Teneriffe on the African coast, and thence to 
the Grand Canary to call for provisions — considered in 
all a run of eight days. From the Canaries one of the 
pataches sailed on alone to Cartagena and Porto Bello, 
carrying letters and packets from the Court and announc- 
ing the coming of the fleet. If the two fleets sailed 
together, they steered south-west from the Canaries to 
about the latitude of Deseada, 1 5' 30", and then catching 
the Trade winds continued due west, rarely changing a 
sail until Deseada or one of the other West Indian islands 
was sighted. From Deseada the galleons steered an easy 
course to Cape de la Vela, and thence to Cartagena. 
When the galleons sailed from Spain alone, however, 
they entered the Caribbean Sea by the channel between 
Tobago and Trinidad, afterwards named the Galleons' 
Passage. Opposite Margarita a second patache left the 
fleet to visit the island and collect the royal revenues, 
although after the exhaustion of the pearl fisheries the 
island lost most of its importance. As the fleet advanced 
into regions where more security was felt, merchant ships 
too, which were intended to unload and trade on the 
coasts they were passing, detached themselves during the 
night and made for Caracas, Santa Marta or Maracaibo 

1 Memoir of MM. Duhalde and dc Rochefort to the French king, 16S0 
(Margry, op. cit., p. 192 ff). 

15 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

to get silver, cochineal, leather and cocoa. The Margarita 
patache, meanwhile, had sailed on to Cumana and Caracas — 
to receive there the king's treasure, mostly paid in cocoa, 
the real currency of the country, and thence proceeded to 
Cartagena to rejoin the galleons. 1 

The fleet reached Cartagena ordinarily about two 
months after its departure from Cadiz. On its arrival, the 
general forwarded the news to Porto Bello, together with 
the packets destined for the viceroy at Lima. From 
Porto Bello a courier hastened across the isthmus to 
the President of Panama, who spread the advice amongst 
the merchants in his jurisdiction, and, at the same time, 
sent a dispatch boat to Payta, in Peru. The general of 
the galleons, meanwhile, was also sending a courier over- 
land to Lima, and another to Santa Fe, the capital of the 
interior province of New Granada, whence ri liners carried 
to Popagan, Antioquia, Mariguita, and adjacent provinces, 
the news of his arrival. 2 The galleons were instructed to 
remain at Cartagena only a month, but bribes from the 
merchants generally made it their interest to linger for 
fifty or sixty days. To Cartagena came the gold and 
emeralds of New Granada, the pearls of Margarita and 
Rancherias, and the indigo, tobacco, cocoa and other 
products of the Venezuelan coast. The merchants of 
Gautemala, likewise, shipped their commodities to Carta- 
gena by way of Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan river, 
for they feared to send goods across the Gulf of Honduras 
to Havana, because of the French and English buccaneers 
hanging about Cape San Antonio. 3 

1 Memoir of MM. Duhalde and de Rochefort to the French king, 1680 
(Margry, op. cit., p. 192 ff.) 

2 Scelle, op, cit., i. p. 64 ; Dampier : Voyages, ed. 1906, i. p. 200. 

3 Gage : A New Survey of the West Indies, ed. 1655, pp. 185-6. When 
Gage was at Granada, in February 1637, strict orders were received from 

16 



INTRODUCTORY 

Meanwhile the viceroy at Lima, on receipt of his 
letters, ordered the Armada of the South Sea to prepare 
to sail, and sent word south to Chili and throughout the 
province of Peru from Las Charcas to Quito, to forward 
the King's revenues for shipment to Panama. Within 
less than a fortnight all was in readiness. The Armada, 
carrying a considerable treasure, sailed from Callao and, 
touching at Payta, was joined by the Navio del Oro 
(golden ship), which carried the gold from the province of 
Quito and adjacent districts. While the galleons were 
approaching Porto Bello the South Sea fleet arrived 
before Panama, and the merchants of Chili and Peru 
began to transfer their merchandise on mules across the 
high back of the isthmus. 1 

Then began the famous fair of Porto Bello. 2 The 

Gautemala that the ships were not to sail that year, because the President and 
Audiencia were informed of some Dutch and English ships lying in wait at 
the mouth of the river. 

1 Scelle, op. cit., i. pp. 64-5 ; Duhalde and de Rochefort. There were two 
ways of sending goods from Panama to Porto Bello. One was an overland 
route of 18 leagues, and was used only during the summer. The other was 
by land as far as Venta Cruz, 7 leagues from Panama, and thence by water 
on the river Chagre to its mouth, a distance of 26 leagues. When the river 
was high the transit might be accomplished in two or three days, but at 
other times from six to twelve days were required. To transfer goods from 
Chagre to Porto Bello was a matter of only eight or nine hours. This route 
was used in winter when the roads were rendered impassable by the great 
xains and floods. The overland journey, though shorter, was also more diffi- 
cult and expensive. The goods were carried on long mule-trains, and the 
" roads, so-called, were merely bridle paths . . . running through swamps 
•and jungles, over hills and rocks, broken by unbridged rivers, and situated in 
one of the deadliest climates in the world." The project of a canal to be cut 
through the isthmus was often proposed to the Councils in Spain, but was 
never acted upon. (Descript. . . . of Cartagena; Oppenheim, i. p. 333.) 

2 Nombre de Dios, a few leagues to the east of Porto Bello, had formerly 
been the port where the galleons received the treasure brought from Panama, 
but in 1584 the King of Spain ordered the settlement to be abandoned on 
account of its unhealthiness, and because the harbour, being open to the sea, 
afforded little shelter to shipping. Gage says that in his time Nombre de 
Dios was almost forsaken because of its climate. Dampier, writing thirty 

2 17 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

town, whose permanent population was very small and 
composed mostly of negroes and mulattos, was suddenly 
called upon to accommodate an enormous crowd of mer- 
chants, soldiers and seamen. Food and shelter were to 
be had only at extraordinary prices. When Thomas 
Gage was in Porto Bello in 1637 he was compelled to 
pay 120 crowns for a very small, meanly-furnished room 
for a fortnight. Merchants gave as much as 1000 crowns 
for a moderate-sized shop in which to sell their com- 
modities. Owing to overcrowding, bad sanitation, and 
an extremely unhealthy climate, the place became an 
open grave, ready to swallow all who resorted there. In 
1637, during the fifteen days that the galleons remained 
at Porto Bello, 500 men died of sickness. Meanwhile, 
day by day, the mule-trains from Panama were winding 
their way into the town. Gage in one day counted 200 
mules laden with wedges of silver, which were unloaded 
in the market-place and permitted to lie about like 
heaps of stones in the streets, without causing any 
fear or suspicion of being lost. 1 While the treasure 
of the King of Spain was being transferred to the 
galleons in the harbour, the merchants were making 
their trade. There was little liberty, however, in com- 
mercial transactions, for the prices were fixed and 
published beforehand, and when negotiations began ex- 
change was purely mechanical. The fair, which was 
supposed to be open for forty days, was, in later times, 
generally completed in ten or twelve. At the beginning 
of the eighteenth century the volume of business trans- 
years later, describes the site as a waste. "Nombre de Dios," he says, "is 
now nothing but a name. For I have lain ashore in the place where that City 
stood, but it is all overgrown with Wood, so as to have no sign that any 
Town hath been there." (Voyages, ed. 1906, i. p. 81.) 
1 Gage, ed. 1655, pp. 196-8. 

18 



INTRODUCTORY 

acted was estimated to amount to thirty or forty million 
pounds sterling. 1 

In view of the prevailing east wind in these regions, 
and the maze of reefs, cays and shoals extending far out 
to sea from the Mosquito Coast, the galleons, in making 
their course from Porto Bello to Havana, first sailed back 
to Cartagena upon the eastward coast eddy, so as to 
get well to windward of Nicaragua before attempting 
the passage through the Yucatan Channel. 2 The fleet 
anchored at Cartagena a second time for ten or twelve 
days, where it was rejoined by the patache of Margarita 3 
and by the merchant ships which had been sent to trade 
in Terra-Firma. From Cartagena, too, the general sent 
dispatches to Spain and to Havana, giving the condition 
of the vessels, the state of trade, the day when he 
expected to sail, and the probable time of arrival. 4 For 
when the galleons were in the Indies all ports were 
closed by the Spaniards, for fear that precious information 
of the whereabouts of the fleet and of the value of its 
cargo might inconveniently leak out to their rivals. 
From Cartagena the course was north-west past Jamaica 
and the Caymans to the Isle of Pines, and thence round 
Capes Corrientes and San Antonio to Havana. The 
fleet generally required about eight days for the journey, 
and arrived at Havana late in the summer. Here the 
galleons refitted and revictualled, received tobacco, sugar, 
and other Cuban exports, and if not ordered to return with 
the Flota, sailed for Spain no later than the middle of 
September. The course for Spain was from Cuba through 

1 Scelle, op. cit., i. p. 65. 2 Oppenheim, ii. p. 338. 

3 When the Margarita patache failed to meet the galleons at Cartagena, 
it was given its clearance and allowed to sail alone to Havana — a tempting 
prey to buccaneers hovering in those seas. 

4 Duhalde and de Rochefort. 

19 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

the Bahama Channel, north-east between the Virginian 
Capes and the Bermudas to about 38 , in order to recover 
the strong northerly winds, and then east to the Azores. 
In winter the galleons sometimes ran south of the Ber- 
mudas, and then slowly worked up to the higher latitude ; 
but in this case they often either lost some ships on the 
Bermuda shoals, or to avoid these slipped too far south, 
were forced back into the West Indies and missed their 
voyage altogether. 1 At the Azores the general, falling 
in with his first intelligence from Spain, learned where on 
the coast of Europe or Africa he was to sight land ; and 
finally, in the latter part of October or the beginning of 
November, he dropped anchor at San Lucar or in Cadiz 
harbour. 

The Flota or Mexican fleet, consisting in the seven- 
teenth century of two galleons of 800 or 900 tons and 
from fifteen to twenty merchantmen, usually left Cadiz 
between June and July and wintered in America ; but 
if it was to return with the galleons from Havana in 
September it sailed for the Indies as early as April. The 
course from Spain to the Indies was the same as for the 
fleet of Terra-Firma. From Deseada or Guadeloupe, how- 
ever, the Flota steered north-west, passing Santa Cruz and 
Porto Rico on the north, and sighting the little isles of 
Mona and Saona, as far as the Bay of Neyba in Hispaniola, 
where the ships took on fresh wood and water. 2 Putting 
to sea again, and circling round Beata and Alta Vela, the 
fleet sighted in turn Cape Tiburon, Cape de Cruz, the Isle 
of Pines, and Capes Corrientes and San Antonio at the 

1 Rawl. MSS., A. 175, 313 b; Oppenheim, ii. p. 338. 

2 Here I am following the MSS. quoted by Oppenheim (ii. pp. 335_^). 
Instead of watering in Hispaniola, the fleet sometimes stopped at Dominica, 
or at Aguada in Porto Rico. 

20 



V 



INTRODUCTORY 

west end of Cuba. Meanwhile merchant ships had dropped 
away one by one, sailing to San Juan de Porto Rico, San 
Domingo, St. Jago de Cuba and even to Truxillo and 
Cavallos in Honduras, to carry orders from Spain to the 
governors, receive cargoes of leather, cocoa, etc., and rejoin 
the Flota at Havana. From Cape San Antonio to Vera 
Cruz there was an outside or winter route and an inside or 
summer route. The former lay north-west between the 
Alacranes and the Negrillos to the Mexican coast about 
sixteen leagues north of Vera Cruz, and then down before 
the wind into the desired haven. The summer track was 
much closer to the shore of Campeache, the fleet threading 
its way among the cays and shoals, and approaching Vera 
Cruz by a channel on the south-east. 

If the Flota sailed from Spain in July it generally 
arrived at Vera Cruz in the first fifteen days of September, 
and the ships were at once laid up until March, when the 
crews reassembled to careen and refit them. If the fleet 
was to return in the same year, however, the exports of 
New Spain and adjacent provinces, the goods from China 
and the Philippines carried across Mexico from the Pacific 
port of Acapulco, and the ten or twelve millions of treasure 
for the king, were at once put on board and the ships 
departed to join the galleons at Havana. Otherwise the 
fleet sailed from Vera Cruz in April, and as it lay dead to 
the leeward of Cuba, used the northerly winds to about 
2 5 , then steered south-east and reached Havana in 
eighteen or twenty days. By the beginning of June it 
was ready to sail for Spain, where it arrived at the end 
of July, by the same course as that followed by the 
galleons. 1 

We are accustomed to think of Spanish commerce 

1 Duhalde and de Rochefort. 
21 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

with the Indies as being made solely by great fleets which 
sailed yearly from Seville or Cadiz to Mexico and the 
Isthmus of Darien. There were, however, always excep- 
tions to this rule. When, as sometimes happened, the 
Flota did not sail, two ships of 600 or 700 tons were sent 
by the King of Spain to Vera Cruz to carry the quick- 
silver necessary for the mines. The metal was divided 
between New Spain and Peru by the viceroy at Mexico, 
who sent via Gautemala the portion intended for the 
south. These ships, called "azogues," carried from 2000 
to 2500 quintals 1 of silver, and sometimes convoyed six 
or seven merchant vessels. From time to time an isolated 
ship was also allowed to sail from Spain to Caracas with 
licence from the Council of the Indies and the Contra- 
tacion, paying the king a duty of five ducats on the ton. 
It was called the "register of Caracas," took the same 
route as the galleons, and returned with one of the fleets 
from Havana. Similar vessels traded at Maracaibo, in 
Porto Rico and at San Domingo, at Havana and Matanzas 
in Cuba and at Truxillo and Campeache. 2 There was 
always, moreover, a special traffic with Buenos Ayres. 
This port was opened to a limited trade in negroes in 
1595. In 1602 permission was given to the inhabitants 
of La Plata to export for six years the products of 
their lands to other Spanish possessions, in exchange 
for goods of which they had need; and when in 16 16 
the colonists demanded an indefinite renewal of this 
privilege, the sop thrown to them was the bare right 
of trade to the amount of 100 tons every three years. 
Later in the century the Council of the Indies extended 

1 Quintal = about ioo pounds. 

2 These " vaisseaux de registre " were supposed not to exceed 300 tons, 
but through fraud were often double that burden. 

22 



INTRODUCTORY 

the period to five years, so as not to prejudice the trade 
of the galleons. 1 

It was this commerce, which we have noticed at such 
length, that the buccaneers of the West Indies in the 
seventeenth century came to regard as their legitimate 
prey. These "corsarios Luteranos," as the Spaniards 
sometimes called them, scouring the coast of the Main 
from Venezuela to Cartagena, hovering about the broad 
channel between Cuba and Yucatan, or prowling in the 
Florida Straits, became the nightmare of Spanish seamen. 
Like a pack of terriers they hung upon the skirts of the 
great unwieldy fleets, ready to snap up any unfortunate 
vessel which a tempest or other accident had separated 
from its fellows. When Thomas Gage was sailing in the 
galleons from Porto Bello to Cartagena in 1637, four 
buccaneers hovering near them carried away two merchant- 
ships under cover of darkness. As the same fleet was 
departing from Havana, just outside the harbour two 
strange vessels appeared in their midst, and getting to 
the windward of them singled out a Spanish ship which 
had strayed a short distance from the rest, suddenly 
gave her a broadside and made her yield. The vessel 
was laden with sugar and other goods to the value of 
80,000 crowns. The Spanish vice-admiral and two other 
galleons gave chase, but without success, for the wind 
was against them. The whole action lasted only half 
an hour. 2 

The Spanish ships of the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries were notoriously clumsy and unseaworthy. 
With short keel and towering poop and forecastle they 
were an easy prey for the long, low, close-sailing sloops 

1 Duhalde and de Rochefort ; Scelle, op. tit., i. p. 54. 

2 Gage, ed. 1655, pp. 199-200. 

23 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

and barques of the buccaneers. But this was not their 
only weakness. Although the king expressly prohibited 
the loading of merchandise on the galleons except on 
the king's account, this rule was often broken for the 
private profit of the captain, the sailors, and even of the 
general. The men-of-war, indeed, were sometimes so 
embarrassed with goods and passengers that it was 
scarcely possible to defend them when attacked. The 
galleon which bore the general's flag had often as many 
as 700 souls, crew, marines and passengers, on board, and 
the same number were crowded upon those carrying the 
vice-admiral and the pilot. Ship-masters frequently hired 
guns, anchors, cables, and stores to make up the required 
equipment, and men to fill up the muster-rolls, against the 
time when the " visitadors " came on board to make their 
official inspection, getting rid of the stores and men 
immediately afterward. Merchant ships were armed with 
such feeble crews, owing to the excessive crowding, that 
it was all they could do to withstand the least spell 
of bad weather, let alone outmanoeuvre a swift-sailing 
buccaneer. 1 

By Spanish law strangers were forbidden to resort to, 
or reside in, the Indies without express permission of the 
king. By law, moreover, they might not trade with the 
Indies from Spain, either on their own account or through 
the intermediary of a Spaniard, and they were forbidden 
even to associate with those engaged in such a trade. 
Colonists were stringently enjoined from having anything 
to do with them. In 1569 an order was issued for the 
seizure of all goods sent to the colonies on the account of 
foreigners, and a royal cedula of 16 14 decreed the penalty 
of death and confiscation upon any who connived at the 

1 Duhalde and de Rochefort ; Oppenheim, ii. p. 318. 
24 



INTRODUCTORY 

participation of foreigners in Spanish colonial commerce. 1 
It was impossible, however, to maintain so complete an 
exclusion when the products of Spain fell far short of 
supplying the needs of the colonists. Foreign merchants 
were bound to have a hand in this traffic, and the Spanish 
government tried to recompense itself by imposing on the 
out-going cargoes tyrannical exactions called "indults." 
The results were fatal. Foreigners often eluded these 
impositions by interloping in the West Indies and in the 
South Sea. 2 And as the Contratacion, by fixing each 
year the nature and quantity of the goods to be shipped 
to the colonies, raised the price of merchandise at will and 
reaped enormous profits, the colonists welcomed this 
contraband trade as an opportunity of enriching them- 
selves and adding to the comforts and luxuries of living. 

From the beginning of the seventeenth century as 
many as 200 ships sailed each year from Portugal with 
rich cargoes of silks,, cloths and woollens intended for 
Spanish America. 3 The Portuguese bought these articles 
of the Flemish, English, and French, loaded them at 
Lisbon and Oporto, ran their vessels to Brazil and up the 
La Plata as far as navigation permitted, and then trans- 
ported the goods overland through Paraguay and Tucuman 
to Potosi and even to Lima. The Spanish merchants of 
Peru kept factors in Brazil as well as in Spain, and as 

1 Scelle, op. cit., i. p. 45 ; Recop., t. i. lib. iii. tit. viii. 

2 There seems to have been a contraband trade carried on at Cadiz itself. 
Foreign merchants embarked their goods upon the galleons directly from 
their own vessels in the harbour, without registering them with the Con- 
tratacion ; and on the return of the fleets received the price of their goods in 
ingots of gold and silver by the same fraud. It is scarcely possible that this 
was done without the tacit authorization of the Council of the Indies at 
Madrid, for if the Council had insisted upon a rigid execution of the laws 
regarding registration, detection would have been inevitable. 

3 Weiss, op. cit., ii. p. 226. 

25 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Portuguese imposts were not so excessive as those levied 
at Cadiz and Seville, the Portuguese could undersell their 
Spanish rivals. The frequent possession of Assientos by 
the Portuguese and Dutch in the first half of the seven- 
teenth century also facilitated this contraband, for when 
carrying negroes from Africa to Hispaniola, Cuba and the 
towns on the Main, they profited by their opportunities to 
sell merchandise also, and generally without the least 
obstacle. 

Other nations in the seventeenth century were not slow 
to follow the same course ; and two circumstances con- 
tributed to make that course easy. One was the great 
length of coast line on both the Atlantic and Pacific slopes 
over which a surveillance had to be exercised, making it 
difficult to catch the interlopers. The other was the venal 
connivance of the governors of the ports, who often 
tolerated and even encouraged the traffic on the plea that 
the colonists demanded it. 1 The subterfuges adopted by 
the interlopers were very simple. When a vessel wished 
to enter a Spanish port to trade, the captain, pretending 
that provisions had run low, or that the ship suffered from 
a leak or a broken mast, sent a polite note to the governor 
accompanied by a considerable gift. He generally 
obtained permission to enter, unload, and put the ship into 

1 Most of the offices in the Spanish Indies were venal. No one obtained a 
post without paying dearly for it, except the viceroys of Mexico and Peru, 
who were grandees, and received their places through favour at court. The 
governors of the ports, and the presidents of the Audiencias established at 
Panama, San Domingo, and Gautemala, bought their posts in Spain. The 
offices in the interior were in the gift of the viceroys and sold to the highest 
bidder. Although each port had three corregidors who audited the finances, 
as they also paid for their places, they connived with the governors. The 
consequence was inevitable. Each official during his tenure of office ex- 
pected to recover his initial outlay, and amass a small fortune besides. So 
not only were the bribes of interlopers acceptable, but the officials often them- 
selves bought and sold the contraband articles. 

26 



INTRODUCTORY 

a seaworthy condition. All the formalities were minutely 
observed. The unloaded goods were shut up in a store- 
house, and the doors sealed. But there was always found 
another door unsealed, and by this they abstracted the 
goods during the night, and substituted coin or bars of 
gold and silver. When the vessel was repaired to the 
captain's satisfaction, it was reloaded and sailed away. 

There was also, especially on the shores of the 
Caribbean Sea, a less elaborate commerce called "sloop- 
trade," for it was usually managed by sloops which hovered 
near some secluded spot on the coast, often at the mouth 
of a river, and informed the inhabitants of their presence 
in the neighbourhood by firing a shot from a cannon. 
Sometimes a large ship filled with merchandise was 
stationed in a bay close at hand, and by means of these 
smaller craft made its trade with the colonists. The latter, 
generally in disguise, came off in canoes by night. The 
interlopers, however, were always on guard against such 
dangerous visitors, and never admitted more than a few at 
a time ; for when the Spaniards found themselves stronger 
than the crew, and a favourable opportunity presented 
itself, they rarely failed to attempt the vessel. 
It Thus the Spaniards of the seventeenth century, by 
persisting, both at home and in their colonies, in an 
economic policy which was fatally inconsistent with 
their powers and resources, saw their commerce gradually 
extinguished by the ships of the foreign interloper, and 
their tropical possessions fall a prey to marauding bands 
of half-piratical buccaneers. Although struggling under 
tremendous initial disabilities in Europe, they had 
attempted, upon the slender pleas of prior discovery 
and papal investiture, to reserve half the world to 

themselves. Without a marine, without maritime tradi- 

27 






BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

tions, they sought to hold a colonial empire greater 
than any the world had yet seen, and comparable only 
with the empire of Great Britain three centuries later 
By discouraging industry in Spain, and yet enforcing in 
the colonies an absolute commercial dependence on the 
home-country, by combining in their rule of distant 
America a solicitous paternalism with a restriction of 
initiative altogether disastrous in its consequences, the 
Spaniards succeeded in reducing their colonies to political 
impotence. And when, to make their grip the more firm, 
they evolved, as a method of outwitting the foreigner of his 
spoils, the system of great fleets and single ports of call, 
they found the very means they had contrived for their 
own safety to be the instrument of commercial disaster. ** 



II. — THE FREEBOOTERS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 

It was the French chronologist, Scaliger, who in the 
sixteenth century asserted, "nulli melius piraticam 
exercent quam Angli " ; and although he had no need 
to cross the Channel to find men proficient in this 
primitive calling, the remark applies to the England of 
his time with a force which we to-day scarcely realise. 
Certainly the inveterate hostility with which the English- 
man learned to regard the Spaniard in the latter half of 
the sixteenth and throughout the seventeenth centuries 
found its most remarkable expression in the exploits of 
the Elizabethan "sea-dogs" and of the buccaneers of 
a later period. The religious differences and political 
jealousies which grew out of the turmoil of the 
Reformation, and the moral anarchy incident to the 

dissolution of ancient religious institutions, were the 

28 



INTRODUCTORY 

motive causes for an outburst of piratical activity- 
comparable only with the professional piracy of the 
Barbary States. 

Even as far back as the thirteenth century, indeed, 
lawless sea-rovers, mostly Bretons and Flemings, had 
infested the English JC|iannel and the seas about Great 
Britain. Yin the siideenth this mode of livelihood 
became the refuge for numerous young Englishmen, 
Catholic and Protestant, who, fleeing from the persecu- 
tions of Edward VI. and of Mary, sought refuge in 
French ports or in the recesses of the Irish coast, and 
became the leaders of wild roving bands living chiefly 
upon plunder. Among them during these persecutions 
were found many men belonging to the best families 
in England, and although with the accession of Elizabeth 
most of the leaders returned to the service of the State, 
the pirate crews remained at their old trade. The 
contagion spread, especially in the western counties, 
and great numbers of fishermen who found their old 
employment profitless were recruited into this new 
calling. 1 At the beginning of Elizabeth's reign we find 
these Anglo-Irish pirates venturing farther south, 
plundering treasure galleons off the coast of Spain, and 
cutting vessels out of the very ports of the Spanish king. 
Such outrages of course provoked reprisals, and the 
pirates, if caught, were sent to the galleys, rotted in the 
dungeons of the Inquisition, or, least of all, were burnt 
in the plaza at Valladolid. These cruelties only added 
fuel to a deadly hatred which was kindling between the 
two nations, a hatred which it took one hundred and 
fifty years to quench. 

The most venturesome of these sea-rovers, however, 

1 Froude : History of England, viii. p. 4$6ff. 
29 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

were soon attracted to a larger and more distant sphere 
of activity. Spain, as we have seen, was then endeavour- 
ing to reserve to herself in the western hemisphere an 
entire new world ; and this at a time when the great 
northern maritime powers, France, England and Holland, 
were in the full tide of economic development, restless 
with new thoughts, hopes and ambitions, and keenly- 
jealous of new commercial and industrial outlets. The 
famous Bull of Alexander VI. had provoked Francis L 
to express a desire "to see the clause in Adam's will 
which entitled his brothers of Castile and Portugal to 
divide the New World between them," and very early the 
French corsairs had been encouraged to test the pre- 
tensions of the Spaniards by the time-honoured proofs of 
fire and steel. The English nation, however, in the first 
half of the sixteenth century, had not disputed with Spain 
her exclusive trade and dominion in those regions. The 
hardy mariners of the north were still indifferent to the 
wonders of a new continent awaiting their exploitation, 
and it was left to the Spaniards to unfold before the eyes 
of Europe the vast riches of America, and to found 
empires on the plateaus of Mexico and beyond the Andes. 
During the reign of Philip II. all this was changed. 
English privateers began to extend their operations 
westward, and to sap the very sources of Spanish wealth 
and power, while the wars which absorbed the attention 
of the Spaniards in Europe, from the revolt of the Low 
Countries to the Treaty of Westphalia, left the field clear 
for these ubiquitous sea-rovers. The maritime powers, 
although obliged by the theory of colonial exclusion to 
pretend to acquiesce in the Spaniard's claim to tropical 
America, secretly protected and supported their mariners 
who coursed those western seas. France and England 

30 



INTRODUCTORY 

were now jealous and fearful of Spanish predominance 
in Europe, and kept eyes obstinately fixed on the in- 
exhaustible streams of gold and silver by means of which 
Spain was enabled to pay her armies and man her fleets. 
Queen Elizabeth, while she publicly excused or disavowed 
to Philip II. the outrages committed by Hawkins and 
Drake, blaming the turbulence of the times and promising 
to do her utmost to suppress the disorders, was secretly 
one of the principal shareholders in their enterprises. 

The policy of the marauders was simple. The treasure 
which oiled the machinery of Spanish policy came from 
the Indies where it was accumulated ; hence there were 
only two means of obtaining possession of it : — bold raids 
on the ill-protected American continent, and the capture 
of vessels en route} The counter policy of the Spaniards 
was also two-fold : — on the one hand, the establishment 
of commerce by means of annual fleets protected by a 
powerful convoy ; on the other, the removal of the centres 
of population from the coasts to the interior of the 
country far from danger of attack. 2 The Spaniards in 
America, however, proved to be no match for the bold„ 
intrepid mariners who disputed their supremacy. The 
descendants of the Conquistadores had deteriorated sadly 
from the type of their forbears. Softened by tropical 
heats and a crude, uncultured luxury, they seem to have 
lost initiative and power of resistance. The disastrous 

1 1585, August 1 2th. Ralph Lane to Sir Philip Sidney. Port Ferdinando,. 
Virginia. — He has discovered the infinite riches of St. John (Porto Rico ?) and 
Hispaniola by dwelling on the islands five weeks. He thinks that if the Queen, 
finds herself burdened with the King of Spain, to attempt them would be most 
honourable, feasible and profitable. He exhorts him not to refuse this good 
opportunity of rendering so great a service to the Church of Christ. The 
strength of the Spaniards doth altogether grow from the mines of her treasure. 
Extract, C.S.P. Colon., 1574-1660. 

2 Scelle, op. cit., ii. p. xiii. 

31 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDTES 

commercial system of monopoly and centralization forced 
them to vegetate ; while the policy of confining political 
office to native-born Spaniards denied any outlet to 
creole talent and energy. Moreover, the productive power 
and administrative abilities of the native-born Spaniards 
themselves were gradually being paralyzed and reduced 
to impotence under the crushing obligation of preserving 
and defending so unwieldy an empire and of managing 
such disproportionate riches, a task for which they had 
neither the aptitude nor the means. 1 Privateering in the 
West Indies may indeed be regarded as a challenge to 
the Spaniards of America, sunk in lethargy and living 
upon the credit of past glory and achievement, a challenge 
to prove their right to retain their dominion and extend 
their civilization and culture over half the world. 2 

There were other motives which lay behind these 
piratical aggressions of the French and English in Spanish 
America. The Spaniards, ever since the days of the 
Dominican monk and bishop, Las Casas, had been re- 
probated as the heartless oppressors and murderers of 
the native Indians. The original owners of the soil had 
been dispossessed and reduced to slavery. In the West 
Indies, the great islands, Cuba and Hispaniola, were 
rendered desolate for want of inhabitants. Two great 
empires, Mexico and Peru, had been subdued by treachery, 
their kings murdered, and their people made to suffer a 

1 Scelle, op. cit. , i. p. ix. 

- 1611, February 28. Sir Thos. Roe to Salisbury. Port d'Espaigne, 
Trinidad. — He has seen more of the coast from the River Amazon to the 
Orinoco than any other Englishman alive. The Spaniards here are proud 
and insolent, yet needy and weak, their force is reputation, their safety is 
opinion. The Spaniards treat the English worse than Moors. The govern- 
ment is lazy and has more skill in planting and selling tobacco than in erecting 
colonies and marching armies. Extract, CS- P. Colon., 1574-1660. (Roe was 
sent by Prince Henry upon a voyage of discovery to the Indies.) 

32 



INTRODUCTORY 

living death in the mines of Potosi and New Spain. 
Such was the Protestant Englishman's conception, in the 
sixteenth century, of the results of Spanish colonial policy. 
To avenge the blood of these innocent victims, and teach 
the true religion to the survivors, was to glorify the Church 
militant and strike a blow at Antichrist. Spain, more- 
over, in the eyes of the Puritans, was the lieutenant of 
Rome, the Scarlet Woman of the Apocalypse, who harried 
and burnt their Protestant brethren whenever she could 
lay hands upon them. That she was eager to repeat her 
ill-starred attempt of 1588 and introduce into the British 
Isles the accursed Inquisition was patent to everyone. 
Protestant England, therefore, filled with the enthusiasm 
and intolerance of a new faith, made no bones of despoiling 
the Spaniards, especially as the service of God was likely 
to be repaid with plunder. 

A pamphlet written by Dalby Thomas in 1690 ex- 
presses with tolerable accuracy the attitude Af the average 
Englishman toward Spain during the previous century. 
He says : — " We will make a short reflection on the 
unaccountable negligence, or rather stupidity, of this 
nation, during the reigns of Henry VII., Henry VIII., 
Edward VI. and Queen Mary, who could contentedly sit 
still and see the Spanish rifle, plunder and bring home 
undisturbed, all the wealth of that golden world ; and to 
suffer them with forts and castles to shut up the doors and 
entrances unto all the rich provinces of America, having 
not the least title or pretence of right beyond any other 
nation ; except that of being by accident the first dis- 
coverer of some parts of it ; where the unprecedented 
cruelties, exorbitances and barbarities, their own histories 
witness, they practised on a poor, naked and innocent 
people, which inhabited the islands, as well as upon those 
3 33 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

truly civilized and mighty empires of Peru and Mexico, 
called to all mankind for succour and relief against their 
outrageous avarice and horrid massacres. . . . (We) slept 
on until the ambitious Spaniard, by that inexhaustible 
spring of treasure, had corrupted most of the courts and 
senates of Europe, and had set on fire, by civil broils and 
discords, all our neighbour nations, or had subdued them 
to his yoke ; contriving too to make us wear his chains 
and bear a share in the triumph of universal monarchy, 
not only projected but near accomplished, when Queen 
Elizabeth came to the crown . . . and to the divided 
interests of Philip II. and Queen Elizabeth, in personal 
more than National concerns, we do owe that start of hers 
in letting loose upon him, and encouraging those daring 
adventurers, Drake, Hawkins, Rawleigh, the Lord Clifford 
and many other braves that age produced, who, by their 
privateering and bold undertaking (like those the 
buccaneers practise) now opened the way to our dis- 
coveries, and succeeding settlements in America." 1 

On the 19th of November 1527, some Spaniards in a 
caravel loading cassava at the Isle of Mona, between 
Hispaniola and Porto Rico, sighted a strange vessel of 
about 250 tons well-armed with cannon, and believing it 
to be a ship from Spain sent a boat to make inquiries. 
The new-comers at the same time were seen to launch a 
pinnace carrying some twenty-five men, all armed with 
corselets and bows. As the two boats approached the 
Spaniards inquired the nationality of the strangers and 
were told that they were English. The story given by 
the English master was that his ship and another had 

x "An historical account of the rise and growth of the West India 
Colonies." By Dalby Thomas, Lond., 1690. (Harl. MiscelL, 1808, II. 

3S7-) 

34 



INTRODUCTORY 

been fitted out by the King of England and had sailed 
from London to discover the land of the Great Khan ; 
that they had been separated in a great storm ; that this 
ship afterwards ran into a sea of ice, and unable to get 
through, turned south, touched at Bacallaos (Newfound- 
land), where the pilot was killed by Indians, and sailing 
400 leagues along the coast of "terra nueva" had found 
her way to this island of Porto Rico. The Englishmen 
offered to show their commission written in Latin and 
Romance, which the Spanish captain could not read ; and 
after sojourning at the island for two days, they inquired 
for the route to Hispaniola and sailed away. On the 
evening of 25th November this same vessel appeared 
before the port of San Domingo, the capital of Hispaniola, 
where the master with ten or twelve sailors went ashore 
in a boat to ask leave to enter and trade. This they 
obtained, for the alguazil mayor and two pilots were sent 
back with them to bring the ship into port. But early 
next morning, when they approached the shore, the 
Spanish alcaide, Francisco de Tapia, commanded a gun 
to be fired at the ship from the castle ; whereupon the 
English, seeing the reception accorded them, sailed back 
to Porto Rico, there obtained some provisions in exchange 
for pewter and cloth, and departed for Europe, " where it 
is believed that they never arrived, for nothing is known 
of them." The alcaide, says Herrera, was imprisoned by 
the oidores, because he did not, instead of driving the 
ship away, allow her to enter the port, whence she could 
not have departed without the permission of the city and 
the fort. 1 

1 Oviedo : Historia general de las Indias, lib. xix. cap. xiii. ; 
Coleccion de documentos . . . de ultramar, torn. iv. p. 57 (deposition of 
the Spanish captain at the Isle of Mona) ; Pacheco, etc. : Coleccion de 

35 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

This is the earliest record we possess of the appearance 
of an English ship in the waters of Spanish America. 
Others, however, soon followed. In 1530 William 
Hawkins, father of the famous John Hawkins, ventured 
in "a tall and goodly ship . . . called the 'Polo of 
Plymouth,' " down to the coast of Guinea, trafficked with 
the natives for gold-dust and ivory, and then crossed the 
ocean to Brazil, " where he behaved himself so wisely with 
those savage people " that one of the kings of the country 
took ship with him to England and was presented to 
Henry VIII. at Whitehall. 1 The real occasion, however, 
for the appearance of foreign ships in Spanish- American 
waters was the new occupation of carrying negroes from 
the African coast to the Spanish colonies to be sold as 
slaves. The rapid depopulation of the Indies, and the 
really serious concern of the Spanish crown for the 
preservation of the indigenes, had compelled the Spanish 
government to permit the introduction of negro slaves 
from an early period. At first restricted to Christian 
slaves carried from Spain, after 15 10 licences to take over 
a certain number, subject of course to governmental 
imposts, were given to private individuals ; and in 
August 1 5 18, owing to the incessant clamour of the 
colonists for more negroes, Laurent de Gouvenot, 
Governor of Bresa and one of the foreign favourites of 

documentos . . . de las posesiones espanoles en America y Oceania, tom. 
xl. p. 305 (cross-examination of witnesses by officers of the Royal Audiencia 
in San Domingo just after the visit of the English ship to that place) ; English 
Historical Review, XX. p. 115. 

The ship is identified with the " Samson " dispatched by Henry VIII. in 
1527 " with divers cunning men to seek strange regions," which sailed from 
the Thames on 20th May in company with the " Mary of Guildford," was lost 
by her consort in a storm on the night of 1st July, and was believed to have 
foundered with all on board. (Ibid.') 

1 Hakluyt, ed. 1600, III. p. 700 ; Froude, op, cit., viii. p. 427. 

36 



INTRODUCTORY 

Charles V., obtained the first regular contract to carry 
4000 slaves directly from Africa to the West Indies. 1 
With slight modifications the contract system became 
permanent, and with it, as a natural consequence, came 
contraband trade. Cargoes of negroes were frequently 
" run " from Africa by Spaniards and Portuguese, and as 
early as 1506 an order was issued to expel all contraband 
slaves from Hispaniola. 2 The supply never equalled the 
demand, however, and this explains why John Hawkins 
found it so profitable to carry ship - loads of blacks 
across from the Guinea coast, and why Spanish colonists 
could not resist the temptation to buy them, not- 
withstanding the stringent laws against trading with 
foreigners. 

The first voyage of John Hawkins was made in 1 562- 
65. In conjunction with Thomas Hampton he fitted out 
three vessels and sailed for Sierra Leone. There he 
collected, "partly by the sword and partly by other 
means," some 300 negroes, and with this valuable human 
freight crossed the Atlantic to San Domingo in 
Hispaniola. Uncertain as to his reception, Hawkins on 
his arrival pretended that he had been driven in by foul 
weather, and was in need of provisions, but without ready 
money to pay for them. He therefore requested per- 
mission to sell "certain slaves he had with him." The 
opportunity was eagerly welcomed by the planters, and 
the governor, not thinking it necessary to construe his 
orders from home too stringently, allowed two-thirds of 
the cargo to be sold. As neither Hawkins nor the Spanish 
colonists anticipated any serious displeasure on the part 
of Philip II., the remaining 100 slaves were left as a 

1 Scelle. , op. cit. , i. pp. 123-25. 139-61. 

2 Colecc. de doc. . . . de ultramar. torn. vi. p. 15. 

37 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

deposit with the Council of the island. Hawkins invested 
the proceeds in a return cargo of hides, half of which he 
sent in Spanish vessels to Spain under the care of his 
partner, while he returned with the rest to England. 
The Spanish Government, however, was not going to 
sanction for a moment the intrusion of the English into 
the Indies. On Hampton's arrival at Cadiz his cargo was 
confiscated and he himself narrowly escaped the Inquisi- 
tion. The slaves left in San Domingo were forfeited, and 
Hawkins, although he " cursed, threatened and implored," 
could not obtain a farthing for his lost hides and negroes. 
The only result of his demands was the dispatch of a 
peremptory order to the West Indies that no English 
vessel should be allowed under any pretext to trade 
there. 1 

The second of the great Elizabethan sea-captains to 
beard the Spanish lion was Hawkins' friend and pupil, 
Francis Drake. In 1567 he accompanied Hawkins on 
his third expedition. With six ships, one of which was 
lent by the Queen herself, they sailed from Plymouth in 
October, picked up about 450 slaves on the Guinea coast, 
sighted Dominica in the West Indies in March, and 
coasted along the mainland of South America past 
Margarita and Cape de la Vela, carrying on a " tolerable 
good trade." Rio de la Hacha they stormed with 200 
men, losing only two in the encounter; but they were 
scattered by a tempest near Cartagena and driven into 
the Gulf of Mexico, where; on 16th September, they 
entered the narrow port of S. Juan d'Ulloa 0/ Vera Cruz. 
The next day the fleet of New Spain, consisting of 
thirteen large ships, appeared outside, and after an 
exchange of pledges of peace and amity with the English 

1 Froude, op. cit., viii. pp. 470-72. 
38 






f 



INTRODUCTORY 

intruders, entered on the 20th. On the morning of the 

24th, however, a fierce encounter was begun, and Hawkins 

and Drake, stubbornly defending themselves against 

tremendous odds, were glad to escape with two shattered 

vessels and the loss of .£100,000 treasure. After a voyage 

of terrible suffering, Drake, in the " Judith," succeeded in 

reaching England on 20th January 1569, and Hawkins 

followed five days later. 1 Within a few years, however, 

Drake was away again, this time alone and with the sole, 

unblushing purpose of robbing the Dons. With only two 

ships and seventy -three men he prowled about the waters 

of the West Indies for almost a year, capturing and 

rifling Spanish vessels, plundering towns on the Main 

and intercepting convoys of treasure across the Isthmus 

of Darien. In 1577 he sailed on the voyage which 

carried him round the world, a feat for which he was 

knighted, promoted to the rank of admiral, and visited by 

the Queen on board his ship, the " Golden Hind." While 

Drake was being feted in London as the hero of the hour, 

Philip of Spain from his cell in the Escorial must have 

execrated these English sea-rovers whose visits brought 

ruin to his colonies and menaced the safety of his treasure 

galleons. 

In the autumn of 1585 Drake was again in command 
of a formidable armament intended against the West 
Indies. Supported by 2000 troops under General Carleill, 
and by Martin Frobisher and Francis Knollys in the fleet, 
he took and plundered San Domingo, and after occupying 
Cartagena for six weeks ransomed the city for 110,000 
ducats. This fearless old Elizabethan sailed from 
Plymouth on his last voyage in August 1595. Though 
under the joint command of Drake and Hawkins, the 

1 Corbett : Drake and the Tudor Navy, I. ch. 3. 
39 






BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

expedition seemed doomed to disaster throughout its; 
course. One vessel, the " Francis," fell into the hands of 
the Spaniards. While the fleet was passing through the 
Virgin Isles, Hawkins fell ill and died. A desperate 
attack was made on S. Juan de Porto Rico, but the 
English, after losing forty or fifty men, were compelled to 
retire. Drake then proceeded to the Main, where in 
turn he captured and plundered Rancherias, Rio de la 
Hacha, Santa Marta and Nombre de Dios. With 750 
soldiers he made a bold attempt to cross the isthmus 
to the city of Panama, but turned back after the loss 
of eighty or ninety of his followers. A few days later, 
on 15th January 1596, he too fell ill, died on the 
28th, and was buried in a leaden coffin off the coast of 
Darien. 1 

Hawkins and Drake, however, were by no means the 
only English privateers of that century in American 
waters. Names like Oxenham, Grenville, Raleigh and 
Clifford, and others of lesser fame, such as Winter, Knollys 
and Barker, helped to swell the roll of these Elizabethan 
sea-rovers. To many a gallant sailor the Caribbean Sea 
was a happy hunting-ground where he might indulge at 
his pleasure any propensities to lawless adventure. If in 
1588 he had helped to scatter the Invincible Armada, he 
now pillaged treasure ships on the coasts of the Spanish 
Main ; if he had been with Drake to flout his Catholic 
Majesty at Cadiz, he now closed with the Spaniards 
within their distant cities beyond the seas. Thus he lined 
his own pockets with Spanish doubloons, and incidentally 
curbed Philip's power of invading England. Nor must we 
think these mariners the same as the lawless buccaneers 
of a later period. The men of this generation were of a 

1 Corbett : Drake and the Tudor Navy, II. chs. I, 2, II. 
40 



/ 



INTRODUCTORY 

sterner and more fanatical mould, men who for their 
wildest acts often claimed the sanction of religious con- 
victions. Whether they carried off the heathen from 
Africa, or plundered the fleets of Romish Spain, they 
were but entering upon "the heritage of the saints.'* 
Judged by the standards of our own century they were 
pirates and freebooters, but in the eyes of their fellow- 
countrymen their attacks upon the Spaniards seemed fair 
and honourable. 

The last of the great privateering voyages for which 
Drake had set the example was the armament which 
Lord George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, sent against 
Porto Rico in 1 598. The ill-starred expeditions of Raleigh 
to Guiana in 1595 and again in 1617 belong rather to 
the history of exploration and colonization. Clifford, 
" courtier, gambler and buccaneer," having run through a 
great part of his very considerable fortune, had seized the 
opportunity offered him by the plunder of the Spanish 
colonies to re-coup himself; and during a period of twelve 
years, from 1586 to 1598, almost every year fitted out, and 
often himself commanded, an expedition against the 
Spaniards. In his last and most ambitious effort, in 1 598, 
he equipped twenty vessels entirely at his own cost, sailed 
from Plymouth in March, and on 6th June laid siege to the 
city of San Juan, which he proposed to clear of Spaniards 
and establish as an English stronghold. Although the 
place was captured, the expedition proved a fiasco. A 
violent sickness broke out among the troops, and as 
Clifford had already sailed away with some of the ships 
to Flores to lie in wait for the treasure fleet, Sir Thomas 
Berkeley, who was left in command in Porto Rico, 
abandoned the island and returned to rejoin the Earl. 1 

' Corbett : The Successors of Drake, ch. x. 
41 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

The English in the sixteenth century, however, had no 
monopoly of this piratical game. The French did some- 
thing in their own way, and the Dutch were not far 
behind. Indeed, the French may claim to have set the 
example for the Elizabethan freebooters, for in the first 
half of the sixteenth century privateers flocked to the 
Spanish Indies from Dieppe, Brest and the towns of the 
Basque coast. The gleam of the golden lingots of Peru, 
and the pale lights of the emeralds from the mountains of 
New Granada, exercised a hypnotic influence not only on 
ordinary seamen but on merchants and on seigneurs with 
depleted fortunes. Names like Jean Terrier, Jacques Sore 
and Francois le Clerc, the latter popularly called " Pie de 
Palo," or " wooden-leg," by the Spaniards, were as detest- 
able in Spanish ears as those of the great English captains. 
Even before 1500 French corsairs hovered about Cape St 
Vincent and among the Azores and the Canaries ; and 
their prowess and audacity were so feared that Columbus, 
on returning from his third voyage in 1498, declared that 
he had sailed for the island of Madeira by a new route to 
avoid meeting a French fleet which was awaiting him near 
St Vincent. 1 With the establishment of the system of 
armed convoys, however, and the presence of Spanish 
fleets on the coast of Europe, the corsairs suffered some 
painful reverses which impelled them to transfer their 
operations to American waters. Thereafter Spanish 
records are full of references to attacks by Frenchmen on 
Havana, St. Jago de Cuba, San Domingo and towns on 

1 Marcel : Les corsaires francais au XVIe siecle, p. 7. As early as 1 50 1 a 
royal ordinance in Spain prescribed the construction of carracks to pursue the 
privateers, and in 1513 royal cedulas were sent to the officials of the Casa de 
Contratacion ordering them to send two caravels to guard the coasts of Cuba 
and protect Spanish navigation from the assaults of French corsairs. (Ibid. , 
p. 8). 

42 



INTRODUCTORY 

the mainland of South and Central America ; full of 
appeals, too, from the colonies to the neglectful authorities 
in Spain, urging them to send artillery, cruisers and 
munitions of war for their defence. 1 

A letter dated 8th April 1537, written by Gonzalo de 
Guzman to the Empress, furnishes us with some interest- 
ing details of the exploits of an anonymous French corsair 
in that year. In November 1536 this Frenchman had 
seized in the port of Chagre, on the Isthmus of Darien, a 
Spanish vessel laden with horses from San Domingo, had 
cast the cargo into the sea, put the crew on shore and 
sailed away with his prize. A month or two later he 
appeared off the coast of Havana and dropped anchor in a 
small bay a few leagues from the city. As there were 
then five Spanish ships lying in the harbour, the inhabit- 
ants compelled the captains to attempt the seizure of the 
pirate, promising to pay for the ships if they were lost. 
Three vessels of 200 tons each sailed out to the attack, and 
for several days they fired at the French corsair, which, 
being a patache of light draught, had run up the bay 
beyond their reach. Finally one morning the Frenchmen 
were seen pressing with both sail and oar to escape from 
the port. A Spanish vessel cut her cables to follow in 
pursuit, but encountering a heavy sea and contrary winds 
was abandoned by her crew, who made for shore in boats. 
The other two Spanish ships were deserted in similar 
fashion, whereupon the French, observing this new turn of 
affairs, re-entered the bay and easily recovered the three 
drifting vessels. Two of the prizes they burnt, and 
arming the third sailed away to cruise in the Florida 

1 Colecc. de doc . . . de ultramar, tomos i., iv., vi. ; Ducere : Les 
corsaires sous l'ancien regime. Append. II. ; Dure, op. cit., i. Append. 
XIV. 

43 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

straits, in the route of ships returning from the West Indies 
to Spain. 1 

The corsairs, however, were not always so uniformly- 
successful. A band of eighty, who attempted to plunder 
the town of St. Jago de Cuba, were repulsed with some 
loss by a certain Diego Perez of Seville, captain of an 
armed merchant ship then in the harbour, who later 
petitioned for the grant of a coat-of-arms in recognition of 
his services. 2 In October 1 544 six French vessels attacked 
the town of Santa Maria de los Remedios, near Cape de 
la Vela, but failed to take it in face of the stubborn 
resistance of the inhabitants. Yet the latter a few months 
earlier had been unable to preserve their homes from 
pillage, and had been obliged to flee to La Granjeria de 
las Perlas on the Rio de la Hacha. 3 There is small 
wonder, indeed, that the defenders were so rarely victori- 
ous. The Spanish towns were ill-provided with forts and 
guns, and often entirely without ammunition or any 
regular soldiers. The distance between the settlements as 
a rule was great, and the inhabitants, as soon as informed 
of the presence of the enemy, knowing that they had no 
means of resistance and little hope of succour, left their 
homes to the mercy of the freebooters and fled to the hills 
and woods with their families and most precious belongings. 
Thus when, in October 1 5 54, another band of three hundred 
French privateers swooped down upon the unfortunate 
town of St. Jago de Cuba, they were able to hold it for 
thirty days, and plundered it to the value of 80,000 pieces 
of eight. 4 The following year, however, witnessed an even 
more remarkable action. In July 1555 the celebrated 

1 Colecc. de doc. . . . de ultramar, torn. vi. p. 22. 

2 Ibid. , p. 23. 

3 Marcel, op. cit., p. 16. 

4 Colecc. de doc. . . . de ultramar, torn. vi. p. 360. 

44 



INTRODUCTORY 

captain, Jacques Sore, landed two hundred men from a 
caravel a half-league from the city of Havana, and before 
daybreak marched on the town and forced the surrender of 
the castle. The Spanish governor had time to retire to the 
country, where he gathered a small force of Spaniards and 
negroes, and returned to surprise the French by night. 
Fifteen or sixteen of the latter were killed, and Sore, who 
himself was wounded, in a rage gave orders for the 
massacre of all the prisoners. He burned the cathedral 
and the hospital, pillaged the houses and razed most of the 
city to the ground. After transferring all the artillery to 
his vessel, he made several forays into the country, burned 
a few plantations, and finally sailed away in the beginning 
of August. No record remains of the amount of the 
booty, but it must have been enormous. To fill the cup of 
bitterness for the poor inhabitants, on 4th October there 
appeared on the coast another French ship, which had 
learned of Sore's visit and of the helpless state of the 
Spaniards. Several hundred men disembarked, sacked a 
few plantations neglected by their predecessors, tore down 
or burned the houses which the Spaniards had begun to 
rebuild, and seized a caravel loaded with leather which 
had recently entered the harbour. 1 It is true that during 
these years there was almost constant war in Europe 
between the Emperor and France ; yet this does not 
entirely explain the activity of the French privateers in 
Spanish America, for we find them busy there in the 
years when peace reigned at home. Once unleash the 
sea-dogs and it was extremely difficult to bring them 
again under restraint. 

With the seventeenth century began a new era in the 
history of the West Indies. If in the sixteenth the 

1 Colecc. de doc. . . . de ultramar, torn. vi. p. 360. 
45 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

English, French and Dutch came to tropical America as 

piratical intruders into seas and countries which belonged 

to others, in the following century they came as permanent 

colonisers and settlers. The Spaniards, who had explored 

the whole ring of the West Indian islands before 1500, 

from the : beginning neglected the lesser for the larger 

Antilles — Cuba, Hispaniola, Porto Rico and Jamaica — and 

for those islands like Trinidad, which lie close to the 

mainland. And when in 15 19 Cortez sailed from Cuba 

for the conquest of Mexico, and twelve years later Pizarro 

entered Peru, the emigrants who left Spain to seek 

their fortunes in the New World flocked to the vast 

territories which the Conquistadores and their lieutenants 

had subdued on the Continent. It was consequently to 

the smaller islands which compose the Leeward and 

Windward groups that the English, French and Dutch 

first resorted as colonists. Small, and therefore "easy 

to settle, easy to depopulate and to re-people, attractive 

not only on account of their own wealth, but also as 

a starting-point for the vast and rich continent off 

which they lie," these islands became the pawns in a 

game of diplomacy and colonization which continued for 

150 years. 

In the seventeenth century, moreover, the Spanish 

monarchy was declining rapidly both in power and 

prestige, and its empire, though still formidable, no longer 

overshadowed the other nations of Europe as in the days 

of Charles V. and Philip II. France, with the Bourbons 

on the throne, was entering upon an era of rapid expansion 

at home and abroad, while the Dutch, by the truce of 1609, 

virtually obtained the freedom for which they had struggled 

so long. In England Queen Elizabeth had died in 1603, 

and her Stuart successor exchanged her policy of dalliance,, 

46 



INTRODUCTORY 

of balance between France and Spain, for one of peace 
and conciliation. The aristocratic free-booters who had 
enriched themselves by harassing the Spanish Indies were 
succeeded by a less romantic but more business-like 
generation, which devoted itself to trade and planting. 
Abortive attempts at colonization had been made in the 
sixteenth century. The Dutch, who were trading in the 
West Indies as early as 1542, by 1580 seem to have gained 
some foothold in Guiana ; l and the French Huguenots, 
under the patronage of the Admiral de Coligny, made 
three unsuccessful efforts to form settlements on the 
American continent, one in Brazil in 1555, another near 
Port Royal in South Carolina in 1562, and two years later 
a third on the St. John's River in Florida. The only 
English effort in the sixteenth century was the vain 
attempt of Sir Walter Raleigh between 1585 and 1590 to 
plant a colony on Roanoke Island, on the coast of what 
is now North Carolina. It was not till 1607 that the 
first permanent English settlement in America was made 
at Jamestown in Virginia. Between 1609 an d 16 19 
numerous stations were established by English, Dutch and 
French in Guiana between the mouth of the Orinoco and 
that of the Amazon. In 1621 the Dutch West India 
Company was incorporated, and a few years later proposals 
for a similar company were broached in England. Among 
the West Indian Islands, St Kitts received its first English 
settlers in 1623 ; and two years later the island was 
formally divided with the French, thus becoming the 
earliest nucleus of English and French colonization in 
those regions. Barbadoes was colonized in 1624-25. In 
1628 English settlers from St Kitts spread to Nevis and 

1 Lucas : A Historical Geography of the British Colonies, vol. ii. 
PP- 37. 50- 

47 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Barbuda, and within another four years to Antigua and 
Montserrat; while as early as 1625 English and Dutch 
took joint possession of Santa Cruz. The founders of the 
French settlement on St. Kitts induced Richelieu to incor- 
porate a French West India Company with the title, " The 
Company of the Isles of America," and under its auspices 
Guadeloupe, Martinique and other islands of the Wind- 
ward group were colonized in 1635 and succeeding 
years. Meanwhile between 1632 and 1634 the Dutch 
had established trading stations on St Eustatius in the 
north, and on Tobago and Curacao in the south near 
the Spanish mainland. 

While these centres of trade and population were being 
formed in the very heart of the Spanish seas, the privateers 
were not altogether idle. To the treaty of Vervins between 
France and Spain in 1598 had been added a secret re- 
strictive article whereby it was agreed that the peace 
should not hold good south of the Tropic of Cancer and 
west of the meridian of the Azores. Beyond these two 
lines (called " les lignes de l'enclos des Amities ") French 
and Spanish ships might attack each other and take fair 
prize as in open war. The ministers of Henry IV. com- 
municated this restriction verbally to the .merchants of 
the ports, and soon private men-of-war from Dieppe, 
Havre and St. Malo flocked to the western seas. 1 Ships 
loaded with contraband goods no longer sailed for the 
Indies unless armed ready to engage all comers, and 
many ship-captains renounced trade altogether for the 
more profitable and exciting occupation of privateering. 
In the early years of the seventeenth century, moreover, 
Dutch fleets harassed the coasts of Chile and Peru, 2 while 

1 Weiss, op. cit., ii. p. 292. 
a Duro, op. cit., iii. ch. xvi. ; iv. chs. iii., viii. 
48 



INTRODUCTORY 

in Brazil 1 and the West Indies a second " Pie de Palo," 
this time the Dutch admiral, Piet Heyn, was proving a 
scourge to the Spaniards. Heyn was employed by the 
Dutch West India Company, which from the year 
1623 onwards, carried the Spanish war into the trans- 
marine possessions of Spain and Portugal. With a fleet 
composed of twenty-six ships and 3300 men, of which 
he was vice-admiral, he greatly distinguished himself at 
the capture of Bahia, the seat of Portuguese power in 
Brazil. Similar expeditions were sent out annually, and 
brought back the rich spoils of the South American 
colonies. Within two years the extraordinary number of 
eighty ships, with 1 500 cannon and over 9000 sailors and 
soldiers, were despatched to American seas, and although 
Bahia was soon retaken, the Dutch for a time occupied 
Pernambuco, as well as San Juan de Porto Rico in the 
West Indies. 2 In 1628 Piet Heyn was in command of a 
squadron designed to intercept the plate fleet which sailed. 
every year from Vera Cruz to Spain. With thirty-one 
ships, 700 cannon and nearly 3000 men he cruised along 
the northern coast of Cuba, and on 8th September fell in 
with his quarry near Cape San Antonio. The Spaniards 
made a running fight along the coast until they reached 
the Matanzas River near Havana, into which they turned 
with the object of running the great-bellied galleons 
aground and escaping with what treasure they could. 
The Dutch followed, however, and most of the rich cargo 
was diverted into the coffers of the Dutch West India. 
Company, The gold, silver, indigo, sugar and logwood 
were sold in the Netherlands for fifteen million guilders, 

1 Portugal between 1581 and 1640 was subject to the Crown of Spain, and 
Brazil, a Portuguese colony, was consequently within the pale of Spanish 
influence and administration. 

2 Blok • History of the People of the Netherlands, iv. p. 36. 

4 49 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

and the company was enabled to distribute to its share- 
holders the unprecedented dividend of 50 per cent. It 
was an exploit which two generations of English mariners 
had attempted in vain, and the unfortunate Spanish general, 
Don Juan de Benavides, on his return to Spain was 
imprisoned for his defeat and later beheaded. 1 

In 1639 we find the Spanish Council of War for the 
Indies conferring with the King on measures to be taken 
against English piratical ships in the Caribbean ; 2 and in 
1642 Captain William Jackson, provided with an ample 
commission from the Earl of Warwick 3 and duplicates 
under the Great Seal, made a raid in which he emulated 
the exploits of Sir Francis Drake and his contemporaries. 
Starting out with three ships and about 11 00 men, mostly- 
picked up in St. Kitts and Barbadoes, he cruised along the 
Main from Caracas to Honduras and plundered the 
towns of Maracaibo and Truxillo. On 25th March 1643 
he dropped anchor in what is now Kingston Harbour in 
Jamaica, landed about 500 men, and after some sharp 
fighting and the loss of forty of his followers, entered the 
town of St. Jago de la Vega, which he ransomed for 200 
beeves, 10,000 lbs. of cassava bread and 7000 pieces of 
eight. Many of the English were so captivated by the 
beauty and fertility of the island that twenty-three deserted 
in one night to the Spaniards. 4 

The first two Stuart Kings, like the great Queen 
who preceded them, and in spite of the presence of a 

1 Blok : History of the People of the Netherlands, iv. p. 37 ; Duro, op. 
cit., iv. p. 90; Gage, ed. 1655, p. 80. 

2 Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 36,325. No. 10. 

3 Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick, was created admiral of the fleet by order 
of Parliament in March 1642, and although removed by Charles I. was re- 
instated by Parliament on rst July. 

4 Brit. Mus., Sloane MSS., 793 °* 8 94 5 Add. MSS., 36,327, No. 9. 

50 



INTRODUCTORY 

powerful Spanish faction at the English Court, looked 
upon the Indies with envious eyes, as a source of 
perennial wealth to whichever nation could secure them. 
James I., to be sure, was a man of peace, and soon 
after his accession patched up a treaty with the Spaniards ; 
but he had no intention of giving up any English 
claims, however shadowy they might be, to America. 
Cornwallis, the new ambassador at Madrid, from a 
vantage ground where he could easily see the financial 
and administrative confusion into which Spain, in spite 
of her colonial wealth, had fallen, was most dissatisfied 
with the treaty. In a letter to Cranborne, dated 2nd 
July 1605, he suggested that England never lost so 
great an opportunity of winning honour and wealth as by 
relinquishing the war with Spain, and that Philip and 
his kingdom "were reduced to such a state as they 
could not in all likelihood have endured for the space 
of two years more." x This opinion we find repeated 
in his letters in the following years, with covert hints 
that an attack upon the Indies might after all be the 
most profitable and politic thing to do. When, in 
October 1607, Zuniga, the Spanish ambassador in 
London,, complained to James of the establishment of 
the new colony in Virginia, James replied that Virginia 
was land discovered by the English and therefore not 
within the jurisdiction of Philip ; and a week later 
Salisbury, while confiding to Zuniga that he thought 
the English might not justly go to Virginia, still 
refused to prohibit their going or command their re- 
turn, for it would be an acknowledgment, he said, that 
the King of Spain was lord of all the Indies. 2 In 1609, 

1 Winwood Papers, II. pp. 75-77. 

2 Brown : Genesis of the United States, I. pp. 120-25, J 7 2 - 

51 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

in the truce concluded between Spain and the Nether- 
lands, one of the stipulations provided that for nine 
years the Dutch were to be free to trade in all places 
in the East and West Indies except those in actual 
possession of the Spaniards on the date of cessation of 
hostilities ; and thereafter the English and French 
governments endeavoured with all the more persistence 
to obtain a similar privilege. Attorney-General Heathy 
in 1625, presented a memorial to the Crown on the 
advantages derived by the Spaniards and Dutch in the 
West Indies, maintaining that it was neither safe nor 
profitable for them to be absolute lords of those regions ; 
and he suggested that his Majesty openly interpose or 
permit it to be done underhand. 1 In September 1637 
proposals were renewed in England for a West India 
Company as the only method of obtaining a share in 
the wealth of America. It was suggested that some 
convenient port be seized as a safe retreat from which 
to plunder Spanish trade on land and sea, and that 
the officers of the company be empowered to conquer 
and occupy any part of the West Indies, build ships, 
levy soldiers and munitions of war, and make reprisals. 2 
The temper of Englishmen at this time was again 
illustrated in 1640 when the Spanish ambassador, Alonzo 
de Cardenas, protested to Charles I. against certain 
ships which the Earls of Warwick and Marlborough 
were sending to the West Indies with the intention, 
Cardenas declared, of committing hostilities against the 
Spaniards. The Earl of Warwick, it seems, pretended 
to have received great injuries from the latter and 
threatened to recoup his losses at their expense. He 
procured from the king a broad commission which gave 

'C.S.P. Colon., 1574-1660. 2 C.S.P. Colon., 1574-1660. 

52 



INTRODUCTORY 

him the right to trade in the West Indies, and to 
*' offend " such as opposed him. Under shelter of this 
commission the Earl of Marlborough was now going 
to sea with three or four armed ships, and Cardenas 
prayed the king to restrain him until he gave security 
not to commit any acts of violence against the Spanish 
nation. The petition was referred to a committee of 
the Lords, who concluded that as the peace had never 
been strictly observed by either nation in the Indies 
they would not demand any security of the Earl. 
"Whether the Spaniards will think this reasonable or 
not," concludes Secretary Windebank in his letter to Sir 
Arthur Hopton, " is no great matter." I 

During this century and a half between 1500 and 
1650, the Spaniards were by no means passive or in- 
different to the attacks made upon their authority and 
prestige in the New World. The hostility of the 
mariners from the north they repaid with interest, and 
woe to the foreign interloper or privateer who fell into 
their clutches. When Henry II. of France in 1557 
issued an order that Spanish prisoners be condemned 
to the galleys, the Spanish government retaliated by 
commanding its sea-captains to mete out the same treat- 
ment to their French captives, except that captains, 
masters and officers taken in the navigation of the 
Indies were to be hung or cast into the sea. 2 In 
December 1600 the governor of Cumana had suggested 
to the King, as a means of keeping Dutch and English 
ships from the salt mines of Araya, the ingenious scheme 
of poisoning the salt. This advice, it seems, was not 
followed, but a few years later, in 1605, a Spanish fleet 

'Clarendon .State Papers, II. p. 87 ; Rymer : Foedera, XX. p. 416. 
1 Duro, op. ci/., ii. p. 462. 

53 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

of fourteen galleons sent from Lisbon surprised and 
burnt nineteen Dutch vessels found loading salt at 
Araya, and murdered most of the prisoners. 1 In 
December 1604 the Venetian ambassador in London 
wrote of "news that the Spanish in the West Indies 
captured two English vessels, cut off the hands, feet, 
noses and ears of the crews and smeared them with 
honey and tied them to trees to be tortured by flies 
and other insects. The Spanish here plead," he con- 
tinued, "that they were pirates, not merchants, and 
that they did not know of the peace. But the barbarity 
makes people here cry out." 2 On 22nd June 1606, 
Edmondes, the English Ambassador at Brussels, in a 
letter to Cornwallis, speaks of a London ship which 
was sent to trade in Virginia, and putting into a river in 
Florida to obtain water, was surprised there by Spanish 
vessels from Havana, the men ill-treated and the cargo 
confiscated. 3 And it was but shortly after that Captain 
Chaloner's ship on its way to Virginia was seized by the 
Spaniards in the West Indies, and the crew sent to languish 
in the dungeons of Seville or condemned to the galleys. 

By attacks upon some of the English settlements, too, 
the Spaniards gave their threats a more effective form. 
Frequent raids were made upon the English and Dutch 
plantations in Guiana ;« and on 8th- 1 8th September 1629 a 
Spanish fleet of over thirty sail, commanded by Don 
Federico de Toledo, nearly annihilated the joint French 
and English colony on St. Kitts. Nine English ships 
were captured and the settlements burnt. The French 
inhabitants temporarily evacuated the island and sailed 

1 Duro, op. cit., iii. pp. 236-37. 3 CS.P. Venet., 1603-07, p. 199. 

J Winwood Papers, II. p. 233. 

4 Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 36,319, No. 7; 36,320, No. 8; 36,321, No. 
24; 36,322, No. 23. 

54 






INTRODUCTORY 

for Antigua; but of the English some 550 were carried 
to Cartagena and Havana, whence they were shipped to 
England, and all the rest fled to the mountains and 
woods. 1 Within three months' time, however, after the 
departure of the Spaniards, the scattered settlers had 
returned and re-established the colony. Providence Island 
and its neighbour, Henrietta, being situated near the 
Mosquito Coast, were peculiarly exposed to Spanish 
attack ; 2 while near the north shore of Hispaniola the 
island of Tortuga, which was colonized by the same 
English company, suffered repeatedly from the assaults 
of its hostile neighbours. In July 1635 a Spanish fleet 
from the Main assailed the island of Providence, but un- 
able to land among the rocks, was after five days beaten 
off "considerably torn" by the shot from the fort. 3 On 
the strength of these injuries received and of others antici- 
pated, the Providence Company obtained from the king 
the liberty " to right themselves " by making reprisals, and 
during the next six years kept numerous vessels preying 
upon Spanish commerce in those waters. King Philip 
was therefore all the more intent upon destroying the 
plantation. 4 He bided his time, however, until the early 
summer of 1641, when the general of the galleons, Don 
Francisco Diaz Pimienta, with twelve sail and 2000 men, 
fell upon the colony, razed the forts and carried off all the 
English, about 770 in number, together with forty cannon and 
half a million of plunder. 5 It was just ten years later that a 

« C.S.P. Colon., 1574-1660:— 1629, 5th and 30th Nov. ; 1630, 29th July. 

2 Gage saw at Cartagena about a dozen English prisoners captured by the 
Spaniards at sea, and belonging to the settlement on Providence Island. 

3 C.S.P. Colon., 1574-1660 :— 1635, 19th March ; 1636, 26th March. 
* Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 36,323, No. 10. 

5 Duro, Tomo., IV. p. 339; cf. also in Bodleian Library: — "A letter 
written upon occasion in the Low Countries, etc. VVhereunto is added avisos 

55 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

force of 800 men from Porto Rico invaded Santa Cruz, whence 
the Dutch had been expelled by the English in 1646, killed 
the English governor and more than 100 settlers, seized 
two ships in the harbour and burnt and pillaged most of 
the plantations. The rest of the inhabitants escaped to 
the woods, and after the departure of the Spaniards 
deserted the colony for St. Kitts and other islands. 1 

from several places, of the taking of the Island of Providence, by the Spaniards 
from the English. London. Printed for Nath. Butter, Mar. 22, 1641. 

"I have letter by an aviso from Cartagena, dated the 14th of September, 
wherein they advise that the galleons were ready laden with the silver, and 
would depart thence the 6th of October. The general of the galleons, named 
Francisco Dias Pimienta, had beene formerly in the moneth of July with 
above 3000 men, and the least of his ships, in the island of S. Catalina, where 
he had taken and carried away with all the English, and razed the forts, 
wherein they found 600 negroes, much gold and indigo, so that the prize is 
esteemed worth above halfe a million." 

1 Rawl. MSS., A. 32, 297 ; 31, 121. 



56 



CHAPTER II 

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE BUCCANEERS 

IN the second half of the sixteenth and the early part 
of the seventeenth centuries, strangers who visited the 
great Spanish islands of Hispaniola, Jamaica or 
Porto Rico, usually remarked the extraordinary number 
of wild cattle and boars found roaming upon them. 
These herds were in every case sprung from domestic 
animals originally brought from Spain. For as the 
aborigines in the Greater Antilles decreased in numbers 
under the heavy yoke of their conquerors, and as the 
Spaniards themselves turned their backs upon the Antilles 
for the richer allurements of the continent, less and less 
land was left under cultivation ; and cattle, hogs, horses 
and even dogs ran wild, increased at a rapid rate, and 
soon filled the broad savannas and deep woods which 
covered the greater part of these islands. The northern 
shore of Hispaniola the Spaniards had never settled, and 
thither, probably from an early period, interloping ships 
were accustomed to resort when in want of victuals. 
With a long range of uninhabited coast, good anchorage 
and abundance of provisions, this northern shore could 
not fail to induce some to remain. In time we find there 
scattered groups of hunters, mostly French and English, 
who gained a rude livelihood by killing wild cattle for their 
skins, and curing the flesh to supply the needs of passing 
vessels. The origin of these men we do not know. They 
may have been deserters from ships, crews of wrecked 

57 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

vessels, or even chance marooners. In any case the charm 
of their half-savage, independent mode of life must soon 
have attracted others, and a fairly regular traffic sprang up 
between them and the ubiquitous Dutch traders, whom 
they supplied with hides, tallow and cured meat in return 
for the few crude necessities and luxuries they required. 
Their numbers were recruited in 1629 by colonists from 
St. Kitts who had fled before Don Federico de Toledo. 
Making common lot with the hunters, the refugees 
found sustenance so easy and the natural bounty of 
the island so rich and varied, that many remained and 
settled. 

To the north-west of Hispaniola lies a small, rocky 
island about eight leagues in length and two in breadth, 
separated by a narrow, channel from its larger neighbour. 
From the shore of Hispaniola the island appears in form 
like a monster sea-turtle floating upon the waves, and 
hence was named by the Spaniards " Tortuga." So 
mountainous and inaccessible on the northern side as to 
be called the C6te-de-Fer, and with only one harbour upon 
the south, it offered a convenient refuge to the French and 
English hunters should the Spaniards become troublesome. 
These hunters probably ventured across to Tortuga before 

1630, for there are indications that a Spanish expedition 
was sent against the island from Hispaniola in 1630 or 

163 1, and a division of the spoil made in the city of San 
Domingo after its return. 1 It was then, apparently, that 
the Spaniards left upon Tortuga an officer and twenty- 
eight men, the small garrison which, says Charlevoix, was 
found there when the hunters returned. The Spanish 
soldiers were already tired of their exile upon this lonely, 
inhospitable rock, and evacuated with the same satisfaction 
with which the French and English resumed their occu- 
pancy. From the testimony of some documents in the 

1 Bibl. Nat., Nouv. Acq., 9334, f. 48. 
58 



BEGINNINGS OF THE BUCCANEERS 

English colonial archives we may gather that the English 
from the first were in predominance in the new colony, and 
exercised almost sole authority. In the minutes of the 
Providence Company, under date of 19th May 163 1, we find 
that a committee was " appointed to treat with the agents 
for a colony of about 1 50 persons, settled upon Tortuga " ; i 
and a few weeks later that " the planters upon the island 
of Tortuga desired the company to take them under their 
protection, and to be at the charge of their fortification, in 
consideration of a twentieth part of the commodities raised 
there yearly." 2 At the same time the Earl of Holland, 
governor of the company, and his associates petitioned 
the king for an enlargement of their grant " only of 3 or 4 
degrees of northerly latitude, to avoid all doubts as to 
whether one of the islands (Tortuga) was contained in 
their former grant." 3 Although there were several islands 
named Tortuga in the region of the West Indies, all the 
evidence points to the identity of the island concerned in 
this petition with the Tortuga near the north coast of 
Hispaniola. 4 

The Providence Company accepted the offer of the 
settlers upon Tortuga, and sent a ship to reinforce the 
little colony with six pieces of ordnance, a supply of 
ammunition and provisions, and a number of apprentices 
or engages. A Captain Hilton was appointed governor, 
with Captain Christopher Wormeley to succeed him in 
case of the governor's death or absence, and the name of 

1 C.S. P. Colon., 1574-1660, p. 130. This company had been organised 
under the name of " The Governor and Company of Adventurers for the 
Plantations of the Islands of Providence, Henrietta and the adjacent islands, 
between 10 and 20 degrees of north latitude and 290 and 310 degrees of 
longitude." The patent of incorporation is dated 4th December 1630 {ibid., 
p. 123). 

- Ibid., p. 131. ; Ibid. 

4 This identity was first pointed out by Pierre de Vaissiere in his recent 
book: "Saint Domingue (1629-1789). La societe et la vie Creoles sous 
l'ancien regime," Paris, 1909. p. 7. 

59 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

the island was changed from Tortuga to Association. 1 
Although consisting for the most part of high land covered 
with tall cedar woods, the island contained in the south 
and west broad savannas which soon attracted planters as 
well as cattle-hunters. Some of the inhabitants of St. 
Kitts, wearied of the dissensions between the French and 
English there, and allured by reports of quiet and plenty in 
Tortuga, deserted St. Kitts for the new colony. The 
settlement, however, was probably always very poor and 
struggling, for in January 1634 the Providence Company 
received advice that Captain Hilton intended to desert the 
island and draw most of the inhabitants after him ; and a 
declaration was sent out from England to the planters, 
assuring them special privileges of trade and domicile, and 
dissuading them from "changing certain ways of profit 
already discovered for uncertain hopes suggested by fancy 
or persuasion." 2 The question of remaining or departing, 
indeed, was soon decided for the colonists without their 
volition, for in December 1634 a Spanish force from 
Hispaniola invaded the island and drove out all the 
English and French they found there. It seems that an 
Irishman named " Don Juan Morf" (John Murphy?), 3 who 
had been " sargento-mayor " in Tortuga, became discon- 
tented with the regime there and fled to Cartagena. The 
Spanish governor of Cartagena sent him to Don Gabriel 
de Gaves, President of the Audiencia in San Domingo, 
thinking that with the information the renegade was able 
to supply the Spaniards of Hispaniola might drive out the 
foreigners. The President of San Domingo, however, died 
three months later without bestirring himself, and it was 
left to his successor to carry out the project. With the 

r C.S.P. Colon., 1574-1660, pp. 131-33. 

* Ibid., pp. 174, 175. 

3 This was probably the same man as the " Don Juan de Morfa Geraldino " 
who was admiral of the fleet which attacked Tortuga in 1654. Cf. Duro, 
op. cit., v. p. 35. 

60 



BEGINNINGS OF THE BUCCANEERS 

information given by Murphy, added to that obtained from 
prisoners, he sent a force of 250 foot under command of 
Rui Fernandez de Fuemayor to take the island. 1 At this 
time, according to the Spaniards' account, there were in 
Tortuga 600 men bearing arms, besides slaves, women and 
children. The harbour was commanded by a platform of 
six cannon. The Spaniards approached the island just 
before dawn, but through the ignorance of the pilot the 
whole armadilla was cast upon some reefs near the shore. 
Rui Fernandez with about thirty of his men succeeded in 
reaching land in canoes, seized the fort without any 
difficulty, and although his followers were so few managed 
to disperse a body of the enemy who were approaching, 
with the English governor at their head, to recover it. In 
the melee the governor was one of the first to be killed — 
stabbed, say the Spaniards, by the Irishman, who took 
active part in the expedition and fought by the side of 
Rui Fernandez. Meanwhile some of the inhabitants, 
thinking that they could not hold the island, had regained 
the fort, spiked the guns and transferred the stores to 
several ships in the harbour, which sailed away leaving 
only two dismantled boats and a patache to fall into the 
hands of the Spaniards. Rui Fernandez, reinforced by 
some 200 of his men who had succeeded in escaping from 
the stranded armadilla, now turned his attention to the 
settlement. He found his way barred by another body of 
several hundred English, but dispersed them too, and took 
seventy prisoners. The houses were then sacked and the 
tobacco plantations burned by the soldiers, and the Spaniards 
returned to San Domingo with four captured banners, the 
six pieces of artillery and 180 muskets. 2 

2 In 1642 Rui Fernandez de Fuemayor was governor and captain-general 
of the province of Venezuela. Cf. Duro, op. cit., iv. p. 341 ; note 2. 

2 Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 13,977, f- 505. According to the minutes of 
the Providence Company, a certain Mr Perry, newly arrived from Association, 
gave information on 19th March 1635 that the island had been surprised by 

61 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

The Spanish occupation apparently did not last very- 
long, for in the following April the Providence Company 
appointed Captain Nicholas Riskinner to be governor of 
Tortuga in place of Wormeley, and' in February 1636 it 
learned that Riskinner was in possession of the island. 1 
Two planters just returned from the colony, moreover, in- 
formed the company that there were then some 80 English 
in the settlement, besides 150 negroes. It is evident that 
the colonists were mostly cattle-hunters, for they assured 
the company that they could supply Tortuga with 200 
beasts a month from Hispaniola, and would deliver calves 
there at twenty shillings apiece. 2 Yet at a later meeting 
of the Adventurers on 20th January 1637, a project for 
sending more men and ammunition to the island was 
suddenly dropped " upon intelligence that the inhabitants 
had quitted it and removed to Hispaniola." 3 For three 
years thereafter the Providence records are silent concern- 
ing Tortuga. A few Frenchmen must have remained on 
the island, however, for Charlevoix informs us that in 1638 
the general of the galleons swooped down upon the colony, 
put to the sword all who failed to escape to the hills and 
woods, and again destroyed all the habitations. 4 Persuaded 
that the hunters would not expose themselves to a repeti- 
tion of such treatment, the Spaniards neglected to leave a 
garrison, and a few scattered Frenchmen gradually filtered 
back to their ruined homes. It was about this time, it 
seems, that the President of San Domingo formed a body 

the Spaniards (C.S.P. Colon., 1574-1660, p. 200). This news was confirmed 
by a Mrs Filby at another meeting of the company on 10th April, when Capt. 
Wormeley, " by reason of his cowardice and negligence in losing the island," 
was formally deprived of his office as governor and banished from the colony 
{ibid., p. 201). 

1 Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 13,977, pp. 222-23. 2 Ibid., pp. 226-27, 235. 

3 Ibid. , pp. 226, 233, 235-37, 244. 

4 Charlevoix : Histoire de . . . Saint Domingue, liv. vii. pp. 9-10. 
The story is repeated by Duro {op. cit. , v. p. 34), who says that the Spaniards 
were led by "el general D. Carlos Ibarra." 

62 



BEGINNINGS OF THE BUCCANEERS 

of 500 armed lancers in an effort to drive the intruders 
from the larger island of Hispaniola. These lancers, half 
of whom were always kept in the field, were divided 
into companies of fifty each, whence they were called 
by the French," cinquantaines." Ranging the woods 
and savannas this Spanish constabulary attacked isolated 
hunters wherever they found them, and they formed 
an important element in the constant warfare between 
the French and Spanish colonists throughout the rest of 
the century. 1 

Meanwhile an English adventurer, some time after the 
Spanish descent of 1638, gathered a body of 300 of his 
compatriots in the island of Nevis near St. Kitts, and sail- 
ing for Tortuga dispossessed the few Frenchmen living 
there of the island. According to French accounts he was 
received amicably by the inhabitants and lived with them for 
four months, when he turned upon his hosts, disarmed them 
and marooned them upon the opposite shore of Hispaniola. 
A few made their way to St. Kitts and complained to M. 
de Poincy, the governor-general of the French islands, 
who seized the opportunity to establish a French governor 
in Tortuga. Living at that time in St. Kitts was a 
Huguenot gentleman named Levasseur, who had been a 
companion-in-arms of d'Esnambuc when the latter settled 
St. Kitts in 1625, and after a short visit to France had re- 
turned and made his fortune in trade. He was a man of 
courage and command as well as a skilful engineer, and 
soon rose high in the councils of de Poincy. Being a 
Calvinist, however, he had drawn upon the governor the 
reproaches of the authorities at home ; and de Poincy pro- 
posed to get rid of his presence, now become inconvenient, 
by sending him to subdue Tortuga. Levasseur received 
his commission from de Poincy in May 1640, assembled 
forty or fifty followers, all Calvinists, and sailed in a barque 
1 Charlevoix, op. cit. y Iiv. vii. p. 10; Bibl. Nat, Nouv. Acq., 9334, p. 48 ff. 

63 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

to Hispaniola. He established himself at Port Margot, 
about five leagues from Tortuga, and entered into friendly 
relations with his English neighbours. He was but biding 
his time, however, and on the last day of August 1640, on 
the plea that the English had ill-used some of his followers 
and had seized a vessel sent by de Poincy to obtain pro- 
visions, he made a sudden descent upon the island with 
only 49 men and captured the governor. The inhabitants 
retired to Hispaniola, but a few days later returned and 
besieged Levasseur for ten days. Finding that they could 
not dislodge him, they sailed away with all their people to 
the island of Providence. 1 

Levasseur, fearing perhaps another descent of the 
Spaniards, lost no time in putting the settlement in a state 
of defence. Although the port of Tortuga was little more 
than a roadstead, it offered a good anchorage on a bottom 
of fine sand, the approaches to which were easily defended 
by a hill or promontory overlooking the harbour. The 
top of this hill, situated 500 or 600 paces from the shore, 
was a level platform, and upon it rose a steep rock some 
30 feet high. Nine or ten paces from the base of the rock 
gushed forth a perennial fountain of fresh water. The new 
governor quickly made the most of these natural advantages. 
The platform he shaped into terraces, with means for accom- 
modating several hundred men. On the top of the rock 
he built a house for himself, as well as a magazine, and 
mounted a battery of two guns. The only access to the 

1 Charlevoix, op. cit.,\\v. vii. pp. 10-12; Vaissiere., op. cit. t Appendix 
I (" Memoire envoye aux seigneurs de la Compagnie des Isles de l'Amerique 
par M. de Poincy, le 15 Novembre 1640"). 

According to the records of the Providence Company, Tortuga in 1640 
had 300 inhabitants. A Captain Fload, who had been governor, was then in 
London to clear himself of charges preferred against him by the planters, 
while a Captain James was exercising authority as " President" in the island. 
C.S.P. Colon., 1574-1660, pp. 313, 314.) Fload was probably the "English 
captain " referred to in de Poincy's memoir. His oppressive rule seems to 
have been felt as well by the English as by the French. 

64 



BEGINNINGS OF THE BUCCANEERS 

rock was by a narrow approach, up half of which steps 
were cut in the stone, the rest of the ascent being by means 
of an iron ladder which could easily be raised and lowered. 1 
This little fortress, in which the governor could repose with 
a feeling of entire security, he euphuistically called his 
" dove-cote." The dove-cote was not finished any too soon, 
for the Spaniards of San Domingo in 1643 determined to 
destroy this rising power in their neighbourhood, and sent 
against Levasseur a force of 500 or 600 men. When they 
tried to land within a half gunshot of the shore, however, 
they were greeted with a discharge of artillery from the 
fort, which sank one of the vessels and forced the rest to 
retire. The Spaniards withdrew to a place two leagues 
to leeward, where they succeeded in disembarking, but fell 
into an ambush laid by Levasseur, lost, according to the 
French accounts, between 100 and 200 men, and fled to 
their, ships and back to Hispaniola. With this victory the 
reputation of Levasseur spread far and wide throughout 
the islands, and for ten years the Spaniards made no 
further attempt to dislodge the French settlement. 2 

Planters, hunters and corsairs now came in greater 
numbers to Tortuga. The hunters, using the smaller - 
island merely as a headquarters for supplies and a retreat 
in time of danger, penetrated more boldly than ever into 
the interior of Hispaniola, plundering the Spanish planta- 
tions in their path, and establishing settlements on the 
north shore at Port Margot and Port de Paix. Corsairs, 
after cruising and robbing along the Spanish coasts, retired 
to Tortuga to refit and find a market for their spoils. 
Plantations of tobacco and sugar were cultivated, and 
although the soil never yielded such rich returns as upon 
the other islands, Dutch and French trading ships frequently 
resorted there for these commodities, and especially for the 
skins prepared by the hunters, bringing in exchange 

1 Dutertre : Histoire generate des Antilles, torn. i. p. 171. 

2 Charlevoix : op. cit., liv. vii. pp. 12-13. 
5 65 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

brandy, guns, powder and cloth. Indeed, under the active, 
positive administration of Levasseur, Tortuga enjoyed a 
degree of prosperity which almost rivalled that of the 
French settlements in the Leeward Islands. 

The term " buccaneer," though usually applied to the 
corsairs who in the seventeenth century ravaged the 
Spanish possessions in the West Indies and the South Seas, 
should really be restricted to these cattle-hunters of west 
and north-west Hispaniola. The flesh of the wild cattle 
was cured by the hunters after a fashion learnt from the 
Caribbee Indians. The meat was cut into long strips, laid 
upon a grate or hurdle constructed of green sticks, and 
dried over a slow wood fire fed with bones and the 
trimmings of the hide of the animal. By this means an 
excellent flavour was imparted to the meat and a fine red 
colour. The place where the flesh was smoked was called 
by the Indians a " boucan," and the same term, from the 
poverty of an undeveloped language, was applied to the 
frame or grating on which the flesh was dried. In 
course of time the dried meat became known as 
" viande boucannee," and the hunters themselves as 
" boucaniers " or " buccaneers." When later circum- 
stances led the hunters to combine their trade in flesh 
and hides with that of piracy, the name gradually lost 
its original significance and acquired, in the English 
language at least, its modern and better-known meaning 
of corsair or freebooter. The French adventurers, how- 
ever, seem always to have restricted the word " boucanier " 
to its proper signification, that of a hunter and curer of 
meat ; and when they developed into corsairs, by a curious 
contrast they adopted an English name and called them- 
selves " flibustiers," which is merely the French sailor's 
way of pronouncing the English word " freebooter." 1 

1 In this monograph, by ' ' buccaneers " are always meant the corsairs and 
filibusters, and not the cattle and hog killers of Hispaniola and Tortuga. 

66 



BEGINNINGS OF THE BUCCANEERS 

The buccaneers or West Indian corsairs owed their 
origin as well as their name to the cattle and hog-hunters 
of Hispaniola and Tortuga. Doubtless many of the wilder, 
more restless spirits in the smaller islands of the Wind- 
/ward and Leeward groups found their way into the ranks 
of this piratical fraternity, or were willing at least to lend. 
a hand in an occasional foray against their Spanish 
neighbours. We know that Jackson, in 1642, had no 
difficulty in gathering 700 or 800 men from Barbadoes 
and St. Kitts for his ill-starred dash upon the Spanish 
Main. And when the French in later years made their 
periodical descents upon the Dutch stations on Tobago, 
Curacao and St Eustatius, they always found in their 
island colonies of Martinique and Guadeloupe buccaneers 
enough and more, eager to fill their ships. It seems to be 
generally agreed, however, among the Jesuit historians of 
the West Indies — and upon these writers we are almost 
entirely dependent for our knowledge of the origins of 
buccaneering — that the corsairs had their source and 
nucleus in the hunters who infested the coasts of Hispaniola. 
Between the hunter and the pirate at first no impassable 
line was drawn. The same person combined in himself 
the occupations of cow-killing and cruising, varying the 
monotony of the one by occasionally trying his hand at 
the other. In either case he lived at constant enmity with 
the Spaniards. With the passing of time the sea attracted 
more and more away from their former pursuits. Even 
the planters who were beginning to filter into the new 
settlements found the attractions of coursing against the 
Spaniards to be irresistible. Great extremes of fortune! 
such as those to which the buccaneers were subject, have 
always exercised an attraction over minds of an adventurous, 
stamp. It was the same allurement which drew the " forty- 
niners '' to California, and in 1897 the gold-seekers to the 
Canadian Klondyke. If the suffering endured was often 

67 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

great, the prize to be gained was worth it. Fortune, if 
fickle one day, might the next bring incredible bounty, 
and the buccaneers who sweltered in a tropical sea, with 
starvation staring them in the face, dreamed of rolling in 
the oriental wealth of a Spanish argosy. Especially to 
the cattle-hunter must this temptation have been great, 
for his mode of life was the very rudest. He roamed the 
woods by day with his dog and apprentices, and at night 
slept in the open air or in a rude shed hastily constructed 
of leaves and skins, which served as a house, and which he 
called after the Indian name, " ajoupa " or " barbacoa." 
His dress was of the simplest — coarse cloth trousers, and 
a shirt which hung loosely over them, both pieces so black 
and saturated with the blood and grease of slain animals 
that they looked as if they had been tarred ("de toile 
gaudronn^e "). 1 A belt of undressed bull's hide bound the 
shirt, and supported on one side three or four large knives, 
on the other a pouch for powder and shot. A cap with a 
short pointed brim extending over the eyes, rude shoes of 
cowhide or pigskin made all of one piece bound over the 
foot, and a short, large-bore musket, completed the hunter's 
grotesque outfit. Often he carried wound about his waist 
a sack of netting into which he crawled at night to keep 
off the pestiferous mosquitoes. With creditable regularity 
he and his apprentices arose early in the morning and 
started on foot for the hunt, eating no food until they had 
killed and skinned as many wild cattle or swine as there 
were persons in the company. After having skinned the 
last animal, the master-hunter broke its softest bones and 
made a meal for himself and his followers on the marrow. 
Then each took up a hide and returned to the boucan, 
where they dined on the flesh they had killed. 2 In this 

1 Labat : Nouveau voyage aux isles de l'Amerique, ed. 1742, torn. vii. 

P- 233- 

2 Le Pers, printed in Margry, op. cit. 

68 



BEGINNINGS OF THE BUCCANEERS 

fashion the hunter lived for the space of six months or a 
year. Then he made a division of the skins and dried 
meat, and repaired to Tortuga or one of the French settle- 
ments on the coast of Hispaniola to recoup his stock of 
ammunition and spend the rest of his gains in a wild 
carouse of drunkenness and debauchery. His money gone, 
he returned again to the hunt. The cow-killers, as they 
had neither wife nor children, commonly associated in 
pairs with the right of inheriting from each other, a custom 
which was called " matelotage." These private associa- 
tions, however, did not prevent the property of all from 
being in a measure common. Their mode of settling 
quarrels was the most primitive — the duel. In other 
things they governed themselves by a certain " coutumier," 
a medley of bizarre laws which they had originated among 
themselves. At any attempt to bring them under 
civilised rules, the reply always was, "telle etoit la 
coutume de la cdte " ; and that definitely closed the 
matter. They based their rights thus to live upon the 
fact, they said, of having passed the Tropic, where, borrow- 
ing from the sailor's well-known superstition, they pre- 
tended to have drowned all their former obligations. 1 
Even their family names they discarded, and the saying 
was in these days that one knew a man in the Isles only 
when he was married. From a life of this sort, cruising 
against Spanish ships, if not an unmixed good, was at 
least always a desirable recreation. Every Spanish prize 
brought into Tortuga, moreover, was an incitement to 
fresh adventure against the common foe. The " gens de 
la cote," as they called themselves, ordinarily associated a 
score or more together, and having taken or built them- 
selves a canoe, put to sea with intent to seize a Spanish 
barque or some other coasting vessel. With silent paddles, 
j under cover of darkness, they approached the unsuspecting 

1 Le Pers, printed in Margry, op. cit. 
6 9 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

prey, killed the frightened sailors or drove them overboard, 
and carried the prize to Tortuga. There the raiders either 
dispersed to their former occupations, or gathered a larger 
crew of congenial spirits and sailed away for bigger game. 

All the Jesuit historians of the West Indies, Dutertre, 
Labat and Charlevoix, have left us accounts of the 
manners and customs of the buccaneers. The Dutch 
physician, Exquemelin, who lived with the buccaneers 
for several years, from 1668 to 1674, and wrote a pictur- 
esque narrative from materials at his disposal, has also 
been a source for the ideas of most later writers on the 
subject. It may not be out of place to quote his de- 
scription of the men whose deeds he recorded. 

" Before the Pirates go out to sea," he writes, " they 

give notice to every one who goes upon the voyage of 

the day on which they ought precisely to embark, 

intimating also to them their obligation of bringing each 

man in particular so many pounds of powder and bullets 

as they think necessary for that expedition. Being all 

come on board, they join together in council, concerning 

what place they ought first to go wherein to get 

provisions — especially of flesh, seeing they scarce eat 

anything else. And of this the most common sort 

among them is pork. The next food is tortoises, which 

they are accustomed to salt a little. Sometimes they 

resolve to rob such or such hog-yards, wherein the 

Spaniards often have a thousand heads of swine together. 

They come to these places in the dark of night, and 

having beset the keeper's lodge, they force him to rise, 

and give them as many heads as they desire, threatening 

withal to kill him in case he disobeys their command 

or makes any noise. Yea, these menaces are oftentimes 

put in execution, without giving any quarter to the 

miserable swine-keepers, or any other person that 

endeavours to hinder their robberies. 

70 



BEGINNINGS OF THE BUCCANEERS 

" Having got provisions of flesh sufficient for their 
voyage, they return to their ship. Here their allowance, 
twice a day to every one, is as much as he can eat, without 
either weight or measure. Neither does the steward of the 
vessel give any greater proportion of flesh or anything 
else to the captain than to the meanest mariner. The 
ship being well victualled, they call another council, 
to deliberate towards what place they shall go, to seek 
their desperate fortunes. In this council, likewise, they 
agree upon certain Articles, which are put in writing, by 
way of bond or obligation, which everyone is bound to 
observe, and all of them, or the chief, set their hands to it. 
Herein they specify, and set down very distinctly, what 
sums of money each particular person ought to have for 
that voyage, the fund of all the payments being the 
common stock of what is gotten by the whole expedition ; 
for otherwise it is the same law, among these people, as 
with other Pirates, ' No prey, no pay.' In the first place, 
therefore, they mention how much the Captain ought to 
have for his ship. Next the salary of the carpenter, or 
shipwright, who careened, mended and rigged the vessel. 
This commonly amounts to ioo or 150 pieces of eight, being, 
according to the agreement, more or less. Afterwards for 
provisions and victualling they draw out of the same 
common stock about 200 pieces of eight. Also a 
competent salary for the surgeon and his chest of 
medicaments, which is usually rated at 200 or 250 
pieces of eight. Lastly they stipulate in writing what 
recompense or reward each one ought to have, that is 
either wounded or maimed in his body, suffering the loss 
of any limb, by that voyage. Thus they order for the loss 
of a right arm 600 pieces of eight, or six slaves ; for the 
loss of a left arm 500 pieces of eight, or five slaves ; for 
a right leg 500 pieces of eight, or five slaves ; for the left 
leg 400 pieces of eight, or four slaves; for an eye 100 

71 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

pieces of eight or one slave ; for a finger of the hand the 
same reward as for the eye. All which sums of money, 
as I have said before, are taken out of the capital sum 
or common stock of what is got by their piracy. For a 
very exact and equal dividend is made of the remainder 
among them all. Yet herein they have also regard to 
qualities and places. Thus the Captain, or chief Com- 
mander, is allotted five or six portions to what the 
ordinary seamen have ; the Master's Mate only two ; 
and other Officers proportionate to their employment. 
After whom they draw equal parts from the highest even 
to the lowest mariner, the boys not being omitted. For 
even these draw half a share, by reason that, when they 
happen to take a better vessel than their own, it is the 
duty of the boys to set fire to the ship or boat wherein 
they are, and then retire to the prize which they have 
taken. 

" They observe among themselves very good orders. 
For in the prizes they take it is severely prohibited to 
everyone to usurp anything in particular to themselves. 
Hence all they take is equally divided, according to what 
has been said before. Yea, they make a solemn oath to 
each other not to abscond or conceal the least thing they 
find amongst the prey. If afterwards anyone is found 
unfaithful, who has contravened the said oath, immediately 
he is separated and turned out of the society. Among 
themselves they are very civil and charitable to each 
other. Insomuch that if any wants what another has, 
with great liberality they give it one to another. As soon 
as these pirates have taken any prize of ship or boat, the 
first thing they endeavour is to set on shore the prisoners, 
detaining only some few for their own help and service, 
to whom also they give their liberty after the space of two 
or three years. They put in very frequently for refresh- 
ment at one island or another ; but more especially into 

72 



BEGINNINGS OF THE BUCCANEERS 

those which lie on the southern side of the Isle of Cuba. 
Here they careen their vessels, and in the meanwhile 
some of them go to hunt, others to cruise upon the seas in 
canoes, seeking their fortune. Many times they take the 
poor fishermen of tortoises, and carrying them to their 
habitations they make them work so long as the pirates 
are pleased." 

The articles which fixed the conditions under which 
the buccaneers sailed were commonly called the " chasse- 
partie." l In the earlier days of buccaneering, before the 
period of great leaders like Mansfield, Morgan and Gram- 
mont, the captain was usually chosen from among their 
own number. Although faithfully obeyed he was remov- 
able at will, and had scarcely more prerogative than the 
ordinary sailor. After 1655 the buccaneers generally 
sailed under commissions from the governors of Jamaica 
or Tortuga, and then they always set aside one tenth of 
the profits for the governor. But when their prizes were 
unauthorised they often withdrew to some secluded coast 
to make a partition of the booty, and on their return to 
port eased the governor's conscience with politic gifts ; and 
as the governor generally had little control over these 
difficult people he found himself all the more obliged to 
dissimulate. Although the buccaneers were called by the 
Spaniards " ladrones " and " demonios," names which they 
richly deserved, they often gave part of their spoil to 
churches in the ports which they frequented, especially 
if among the booty they found any ecclesiastical orna- 
ments or the stuffs for making them — articles which not 
infrequently formed an important part of the cargo of 
Spanish treasure ships. In March 1694 the Jesuit writer, 
Labat, took part in a Mass at Martinique which was 

1 Dampier writes that " Privateers are not obliged to any ship, but free to 
go ashore where they please, or to go into any other ship that will entertain 
them, only paying for their provision." (Edition 1906, i. p. 61). 

73 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

performed for some French buccaneers in pursuance of a 
vow made when they were taking two English vessels near 
Barbadoes. The French vessel and its two prizes were 
anchored near the church, and fired salutes of all their 
cannon at the beginning of the Mass, at the Elevation of 
the Host, at the Benediction, and again at the end of the 
Te Deum sung after the Mass. 1 Labat, who, although a 
priest, is particularly lenient towards the crimes of the 
buccaneers, and who we suspect must have been the 
recipient of numerous " favours " from them out of their 
store of booty, relates a curious tale of the buccaneer, 
Captain Daniel, a tale which has often been used by other 
writers, but which may bear repetition. Daniel, in need 
of provisions, anchored one night off one of the " Saintes," 
small islands near Dominica, and landing without opposi- 
tion, took possession of the house of the cure and of some 
other inhabitants of the neighbourhood. He carried the 
cure and his people on board his ship without offering 
them the least violence, and told them that he merely 
wished to buy some wine, brandy and fowls. While these 
were being gathered, Daniel requested the cure to cele- 
brate Mass, which the poor priest dared not refuse. So 
the necessary sacred vessels were sent for and an altar 
improvised on the deck for the service, which they chanted 
to the best of their ability. As at Martinique, the Mass 
was begun by a discharge of artillery, and after the 
Exaudiat and prayer for the King was closed by a loud 
" Vive le Roi ! " from the throats of the buccaneers. A 
single incident, however, somewhat disturbed the devotions. 
One of the buccaneers, remaining in an indecent attitude 
during the Elevation, was rebuked by the captain, and 
mstead of heeding the correction, replied with an impertin- 
ence and a fearful oath. Quick as a flash Daniel whipped 
out his pistol and shot the buccaneer through the head, 

1 Labat, op. cit., torn. i. ch. 9. 

74 



BEGINNINGS OF THE BUCCANEERS 

adjuring God that he would do as much to the first who 
failed in his respect to the Holy Sacrifice. The shot was 
fired close by the priest, who, as we can readily imagine, 
was considerably agitated. " Do not be troubled, my 
father," said Daniel ; " he is a rascal lacking in his duty 
and I have punished him to teach him better." A very 
efficacious means, remarks Labat, of preventing his falling 
into another like mistake. After the Mass the body of 
the dead man was thrown into the sea, and the cure was 
recompensed for his pains by some goods out of their stock 
and the present of a negro slave. 1 

The buccaneers preferred to sail in barques, vessels of 
•one mast and rigged with triangular sails. This type of 
boat, they found, could be more easily manoeuvred, was 
faster and sailed closer to the wind. The boats were built 
of cedar, and the best were reputed to come from Bermuda. 
They carried very few guns, generally from six to twelve 
or fourteen, the corsairs believing that four muskets did 
more execution than one cannon. 2 The buccaneers 
sometimes used brigantines, vessels with two masts, 
the fore or mizzenmast being square-rigged with two 
sails and the mainmast rigged like that of a barque. 
The corsair at Martinique of whom Labat speaks was 
captain of a corvette, a boat like a brigantine, except that 
all the sails were square-rigged. At the beginning of a 
voyage the freebooters were generally so crowded in their 
small vessels that they suffered much from lack of room. 
Moreover, they had little protection from sun and rain, and 
with but a small stock of provisions often faced starvation. 
It was this as much as anything which frequently inspired 
them to attack without reflection any possible prize, great 
or small, and to make themselves masters of it or perish in 
the attempt. Their first object was to come to close 
quarters ; and although a single broadside would have 

' Labat, op. cii., torn. vii. ch. 17. 2 Ibid., torn. ii. ch. 17. 

75 






/ 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

sunk their small craft, they manoeuvred so skilfully as to 
keep their bow always presented to the enemy, while 
their musketeers cleared the enemy's decks until the 
time when the captain judged it proper to board. The 
buccaneers rarely attacked Spanish ships on the outward 
voyage from Europe to America, for such ships were loaded 
with wines, cloths, grains and other commodities for which 
they had little use, and which they could less readily turn 
into available wealth. Outgoing vessels also carried large 
crews and a considerable number of passengers. It was 
the homeward-bound ships, rather, which attracted their 
avarice, for in such vessels the crews were smaller and 
the cargo consisted of precious metals, dye-woods and 
jewels, articles which the freebooters could easily dispose 
of to the merchants and tavern-keepers of the ports they 
frequented. 

The Gulf of Honduras and the Mosquito Coast, dotted 
with numerous small islands and protecting reefs, was a 
favourite retreat for the buccaneers. As the clumsy 
Spanish war-vessels of the period found it ticklish work 
threading these tortuous channels, where a sudden adverse 
wind usually meant disaster, the buccaneers there felt 
secure from interference ; and in the creeks, lagoons and 
river-mouths densely shrouded by tropical foliage, they 
were able to careen and refit their vessels, divide their 
booty, and enjoy a respite from their sea-forays. Thence, 
too, they preyed upon the Spanish ships which sailed from 
the coast of Cartagena to Porto Bello, Nicaragua, Mexico, 
and the larger Antilles, and were a constant menace to the 
great treasure galleons of the Terra-Firma fleet. The 
English settlement on the island of Providence, lying as 
it did off the Nicaragua coast and in the very track of 
Spanish commerce in those regions, was, until captured in 
1641, a source of great fear to Spanish mariners ; and when 
in 1642 some English occupied the island of Roatan, near 

76 



Corvette. 




FROM EXQUEMEL1N S HISTOIRE DES AVENTURIERS, TREVOUX, 1744 



BEGINNINGS OF THE BUCCANEERS 

Truxillo, the governor of Cuba and the Presidents of the 
Audiencias at Gautemala and San Domingo jointly equip- 
ped an expedition of four vessels under D. Francisco de 
Villalba y Toledo, which drove out the intruders. 1 Closer 
to the buccaneering headquarters in Tortuga (and later in 
Jamaica) were the straits separating the great West Indian 
islands : — the Yucatan Channel at the western end of Cuba, 
the passage between Cuba and Hispaniola in the east, and 
the Mona Passage between Hispaniola and Porto Rico. 
In these regions the corsairs waited to pick up stray 
Spanish merchantmen, and watched for the coming of the 
galleons or the Flota. 2 

When the buccaneers returned from their cruises they 
generally squandered in a few days, in the taverns of the 
towns which they frequented, the wealth which had cost 
them such peril and labour. Some of these outlaws, says 
Exquemelin, would spend 2000 or 3000 pieces of eight 3 in 
one night, not leaving themselves a good shirt to wear on 
their backs in the morning. " My own master," he con- 
tinues, " would buy, on like occasions, a whole pipe of wine, 
and placing it in the street would force every one that 
passed by to drink with him ; threatening also to pistol 
them in case they would not do it. At other times he 
would do the same with barrels of ale or beer. And, very 
often, with both in his hands, he would throw these liquors 
about the streets, and wet the clothes of such as walked 
by, without regarding whether he spoiled their apparel or 
not, were they men or women." The taverns and ale- 
houses always welcomed the arrival of these dissolute 
corsairs ; and although they extended long credits, they 

1 Gibbs : British Honduras, p. 25. 

2 A Spaniard, writing from S. Domingo in 1635, complains of an English 
buccaneer settlement at Samana (on the north coast of Hispaniola, near the 
Mona Passage), where they grew tobacco, and preyed on the ships sailing 
from Cartagena and S. Domingo for Spain. (Add. MSS., 13,977, f. 508.) 

3 A piece of eight was worth in Jamaica from 4s. 6d. to 5s. 

77 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

also at times sold as indentured servants those who 
had run too deeply into debt, as happened in Jamaica 
to this same patron or master of whom Exquemelin 
wrote. 

Until 1640 buccaneering in the West Indies was more 
or less accidental, occasional, in character. In the second 
half of the century, however, the numbers of the free- 
booters greatly increased, and men entirely deserted their 
former occupations for the excitement and big profits of 
the " course." There were several reasons for this increase 
in the popularity of buccaneering. The English ad- 
venturers in Hispaniola had lost their profession of hunting 
very early, for with the coming of Levasseur the French 
had gradually elbowed them out of the island, and com- 
pelled them either to retire to the Lesser Antilles or to 
prey upon their Spanish neighbours. But the French 
themselves were within the next twenty years driven to 
the same expedient. The Spanish colonists on Hispaniola,. 
unable to keep the French from the island, at last 
foolishly resolved, according to Charlevoix's account, to. 
remove the principal attraction by destroying all the wild 
cattle. If the trade with French vessels and the barter of 
hides for brandy could be arrested, the hunters would be 
driven from the woods by starvation. This policy, together 
with the wasteful methods pursued by the hunters, caused 
a rapid decrease in the number of cattle. The Spaniards,, 
however, did not dream of the consequences of their 
action. Many of the French, forced to seek another 
occupation, naturally fell into the way of buccaneering.. 
The hunters of cattle became hunters of Spaniards, and. 
the sea became the savanna on which they sought their 
game. Exquemelin tells us that when he arrived at the 
island there were scarcely three hundred engaged in 
hunting, and even these found their livelihood precarious. 
It was from this time forward to the end of the century- 

78 




BEGINNINGS OF THE BUCCANEERS 

that the buccaneers played so important a role on the 
stage of West Indian history. 

Another source of recruits for the freebooters were the 
indentured servants or engages. We hear a great deal 
of the barbarity with which West Indian planters and 
hunters in the seventeenth century treated their servants > 
and we may well believe that many of the latter, finding 
their situation unendurable, ran away from their planta- 
tions or ajoupas to join the crew of a chance corsair 
hovering in the neighbourhood. The hunters' life, as we 
have seen, was not one of revelry and ease. On the one 
side were all the insidious dangers lurking in a wild, 
tropical forest ; on the other, the relentless hostility of the 
Spaniards. The environment of the hunters made them 
rough and cruel, and for many an engage his three years 
of servitude must have been a veritable purgatory. The 
servants of the planters were in no better position. 
Decoyed from Norman and Breton towns and villages by 
the loud-sounding promises of sea-captains and West 
Indian agents, they came to seek an El Dorado, and often 
found only despair and death. The want of sufficient 
negroes led men to resort to any artifice in order to obtain 
assistance in cultivating the sugar-cane and tobacco. The 
apprentices sent from Europe were generally bound out in 
the French Antilles for eighteen months or three years, 
among the English for seven years. They were often 
resold in the interim, and sometimes served ten or twelve 
years before they regained their freedom. They were 
veritable convicts, often more ill-treated than the slaves 
with whom they worked side by side, for their lives, after 
the expiration of their term of service, were of no conse- 
quence to their masters. Many of these apprentices, of 
good birth and tender education, were unable to endure 
the debilitating climate and hard labour, let alone the 
cruelty of their employers. Exquemelin, himself origin- 

79 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

ally an engage, gives a most piteous description of their 
sufferings. He was sold to the Lieutenant-Governor of 
Tortuga, who treated him with great severity and 
refused to take less than 300 pieces of eight for his 
freedom. Falling ill through vexation and despair, he 
passed into the hands of a surgeon, who proved kind to 
him and finally gave him his liberty for 100 pieces of 
eight, to be paid after his first buccaneering voyage. 1 

We left Levasseur governor in Tortuga after the 
abortive Spanish attack of 1643. Finding his personal 
ascendancy so complete over the rude natures about him, 
Levasseur, like many a greater man in similar circum- 
stances, lost his sense of the rights of others. His 
character changed, he became suspicious and intolerant, 
and the settlers complained bitterly of his cruelty and 
overbearing temper. Having come as the leader of a band 
of Huguenots, he forbade the Roman Catholics to hold 
services on the island, burnt their chapel and turned out 
their priest. He placed heavy imposts on trade, and soon 
amassed a considerable fortune. 2 In his eyrie upon the 
rock fortress, he is said to have kept for his enemies a cage 
of iron, in which the prisoner could neither stand nor lie 
down, and which Levasseur, with grim humour, called his 
" little hell." A dungeon in his castle he termed in like 
fashion his "purgatory." All these stories, however, are 
reported by the Jesuits, his natural foes, and must be 
taken with a grain of salt. De Poincy, who himself ruled 
with despotic authority and was guilty of similar cruelties, 
would have turned a deaf ear to the denunciations against 
his lieutenant, had not his jealousy been aroused by the 
suspicion that Levasseur intended to declare himself an 
independent prince. 3 So the governor-general, already in 

1 Exquemelin, ed. 1684, Part I. pp. 21-22. 

2 Dutertre, op. cit., torn. i. ch. vi. 

3 Charlevoix, op. cit., liv. vii. p. 16. 

80 












BEGINNINGS OF THE BUCCANEERS 

bad odour at court for having given Levasseur means of 
establishing a little Geneva in Tortuga, began to disavow 
him to the authorities at home. He also sent his nephew, 
M. de Lonvilliers, to Tortuga, on the pretext of compli- 
menting Levasseur on his victory over the Spaniards, but 
really to endeavour to entice him back to St Kitts. 
Levasseur, subtle and penetrating, skilfully avoided the 
trap, and Lonvilliers returned to St Kitts alone. 

Charlevoix relates an amusing instance of the governor's 
stubborn resistance to de Poincy's authority. A silver 
statue of the Virgin, captured by some buccaneer from a 
Spanish ship, had been appropriated by Levasseur, and de 
Poincy, desiring to decorate his chapel with it, wrote to 
him demanding the statue, and observing that a Protestant 
had no use for such an object. Levasseur, however, 
replied that the Protestants had a great adoration for 
silver virgins, and that Catholics being "trop spirituels 
pour tenir a la matiere," he was sending him, instead, a 
madonna of painted wood. 

After a tenure of power for twelve years, Levasseur 
came to the end of his tether. While de Poincy 
was resolving upon an expedition to oust him from 
authority, two adventurers named Martin and Thibault, 
whom Levasseur had adopted as his heirs, and with whom, 
it is said, he had quarrelled over a mistress, shot him as he 
was descending from the fort to the shore, and completed 
the murder by a poniard's thrust. They then seized the 
government without any opposition from the inhabitants. 1 
Meanwhile there had arrived at St. Kitts the Chevalier de 
Fontenay, a soldier of fortune who had distinguished 
himself against the Turks and was attracted by the gleam 
of Spanish gold. He it was whom de Poincy chose as the 
man to succeed Levasseur. The opportunity for action 
was eagerly accepted by de Fontenay, but the project was 

1 Charlevoix, op. cit., liv. vii. pp. 17-18. 
6 81 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

kept secret, for if Levasseur had got wind of it all the 
forces in St. Kitts could not have dislodged him. 
Volunteers were raised on the pretext of a privateering 
expedition to the coasts of Cartagena, and to complete 
the deception de Fontenay actually sailed for the Main 
and captured several prizes. The rendezvous was on the 
coast of Hispaniola, where de Fontenay was eventually 
joined by de Poincy's nephew, M. de Treval, with another 
frigate and materials for a siege. Learning of the murder 
of Levasseur, the invaders at once sailed for Tortuga and 
landed several hundred men at the spot where the Spaniards 
had formerly been repulsed. The two assassins, finding 
the inhabitants indisposed to support them, capitulated 
to de Fontenay on receiving pardon for their crime and 
the peaceful possession of their property. Catholicism 
was restored, commerce was patronized and buccaneers 
encouraged to use the port. Two stone bastions were 
raised on the platform and more guns were mounted. 1 De 
Fontenay himself was the first to bear the official title of 
" Governor for the King of Tortuga and the Coast of S. 
Domingo." 

The new governor was not fated to enjoy his success 
for any length of time. The President of S. Domingo, 
Don Juan Francisco de Montemayor, with orders from the 
King of Spain, was preparing for another effort to get rid 
of his troublesome neighbour, and in November 1653 sent 
an expedition of five vessels and 400 infantry against 
the French, under command of Don Gabriel Roxas de 
Valle-Figueroa. The ships were separated by a storm, 

1 According to a Spanish MS., there were in Tortuga in 1653 700 French 
inhabitants, more than 200 negroes, and 250 Indians with their wives and 
children. The negroes and Indians were all slaves ; the former seized on the 
coasts of Havana and Cartagena, the latter brought over from Yucatan. In 
the harbour the platform had fourteen cannon, and in the fort above were 
forty-six cannon, many of them of bronze (Add. MSS., 13,992, f. 499#). 
The report of the amount of ordnance is doubtless an exaggeration. 

82 



BEGINNINGS OF THE BUCCANEERS 

two ran aground and a third was lost, so that only the 
""Capitana" and "Almirante" reached Tortuga on ioth 
January. Being greeted with a rough fire from the plat- 
form and fort as they approached the harbour, they 
dropped anchor a league to leeward and landed with little 
opposition. After nine days of fighting and siege of the 
fort, de Fontenay capitulated with the honours of war. 1 
According to the French account, the Spaniards, lashing 
their cannon to rough frames of wood, dragged a battery 
of eight or ten guns to the top of some hills commanding 
the fort, and began a furious bombardment. Several 
sorties of the besieged to capture the battery were un- 
successful. The inhabitants began to tire of fighting, and 
de Fontenay, discovering some secret negotiations with 
the enemy, was compelled to sue for terms. With in- 
credible exertions, two half-scuttled ships in the harbour 
were fitted up and provisioned within three days, and upon 
them the French sailed for Port Margot. 2 The Spaniards 
claimed that the booty would have been considerable but 
for some Dutch trading-ships in the harbour which con- 
veyed all the valuables from the island. They burned the 
settlements, however, carried away with them some guns, 
munitions of war and slaves, and this time taking the pre- 
caution to leave behind a garrison of 150 men, sailed for 
Hispaniola. Fearing that the French might join forces 
I with the buccaneers and attack their small squadron on 
the way back, they retained de Fontenay's brother as a 
hostage until they reached the city of San Domingo. 
De Fontenay, indeed, after his brother's release, did deter- 
mine to try and recover the island. Only 130 of his men 

1 Add. MSS., 13,992, f. 499. 

2 According to Dutertre, one vessel was commanded by the assassins, 
Martin and Thibault, and contained the women and children. The latter, 
when provisions ran low, were marooned on one of the Caymans, north-west 
of Jamaica, where they would have perished had not a Dutch ship found and 
rescued them. Martin and Thibault were never heard of again. 

83 






BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

stood by him, the rest deserting to join the buccaneers in 
western Hispaniola. While he was careening his ship at Port 
Margot, however, a Dutch trader arrived with commodities 
for Tortuga, and learning of the disaster, offered him aid 
with men and supplies. A descent was made upon the 
smaller island, and the Spaniards were besieged for twenty- 
days, but after several encounters they compelled the 
French to withdraw. De Fontenay, with only thirty 
companions, sailed for Europe, was wrecked among the 
Azores, and eventually reached France, only to die a short 
time afterwards. 






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FROM THE "RC 




IIAGAZINE," 1760 



CHAPTER III 

THE CONQUEST OF JAMAICA 

THE capture of Jamaica by the expedition sent out 
by Cromwell in 1655 was the blundering begin- 
ning of a new era in West Indian history. It was 
the first permanent annexation by another European 
power of an integral part of Spanish America. Before 
1655 the island had already been twice visited by English 
forces. The first occasion was in January 1597, when 
Sir Anthony Shirley, with little opposition, took and 
plundered St. Jago de la Vega. The second was in 1643, 
when William Jackson repeated the same exploit with 
500 men from the Windward Islands. Cromwell's expedi- 
tion, consisting of 2500 men and a considerable fleet, set 
sail from England in December 1654, with the secret 
object of " gaining an interest " in that part of the West 
Indies in possession of the Spaniards. Admiral Penn 
commanded the fleet, and General Venables the land 
forces. 1 The expedition reached Barbadoes at the end of 
January, where some 4000 additional troops were raised, 

1 Venables was not bound by his instructions to any definite plan. It had 
been proposed, he was told, to seize Hispaniola or Porto Rico or both, after 
which either Cartagena or Havana might be taken, and the Spanish revenue- 
fleets obstructed. An alternative scheme was to make the first attempt on 
the mainland at some point between the mouth of the Orinoco and Porto 
Bello, with the ultimate object of securing Cartagena. It was left to Venables, 
however, to consult with Admiral Penn and three commissioners, Edward 
Winslow (former governor of Plymouth colony in New England), Daniel 
Searle (governor of Barbadoes), and Gregory Butler, as to which, if any, of 
these schemes should be carried out. Not until some time after the arrival of 
the fleet at Barbadoes was it resolved to attack Hispaniola. (Narrative of 
Gen. Venables, edition 1900, pp. x, 1 12-3.) 

85 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

besides about 1 200 from Nevis, St. Kitts, and neighbouring- 
islands. The commanders having resolved to direct their 
first attempt against Hispaniola, on 13th April a landing 
was effected at a point to the west of San Domingo, and 
the army, suffering terribly from a tropical sun and lack 
of water, marched thirty miles through woods and 
savannahs to attack the city. The English received two 
shameful defeats from a handful of Spaniards on 17th and 
25th April, and General Venables, complaining loudly of 
the cowardice of his men and of Admiral's Penn's failure 
to co-operate with him, finally gave up the attempt and 
sailed for Jamaica. On nth May, in the splendid harbour 
on which Kingston now stands, the English fleet dropped 
anchor. Three small forts on the western side were 
battered by the guns from the ships, and as soon as the 
troops began to land the garrisons evacuated their posts. 
St. Jago, six miles inland, was occupied next day.' The 
terms offered by Venables to the Spaniards (the same as 
those exacted from the English settlers on Providence 
Island in 1641 — emigration within ten days on pain of 
death, and forfeiture of all their property) were accepted on 
the 17th ; but the Spaniards were soon discovered to have 
entered into negotiations merely to gain time and retire 
with their families and goods to the woods and mountains, 
whence they continued their resistance. Meanwhile the 
army, wretchedly equipped with provisions and other 
necessities, was decimated by sickness. On the 19th 
two long-expected store-ships arrived, but the supplies 
brought by them were limited, and an appeal for assist- 
ance was sent to New England. Admiral Penn, disgusted 
with the fiasco in Hispaniola and on bad terms with 
Venables, sailed for England with part of his fleet on 
25th June ; and Venables, so ill that his life was despaired 
of, and also anxious to clear himself of the responsibility 

for the initial failure of the expedition, followed in the 

86 




i 



THE CONQUEST OF JAMAICA 

" Marston Moor " nine days later. On 20th September both 
commanders appeared before the Council of State to 
answer the charge of having deserted their posts, and to- 
gether they shared the disgrace of a month in the Tower. 1 

The army of General Venables was composed of very 
inferior and undisciplined troops, mostly the rejected of 
English regiments or the offscourings of the West Indian 
colonies ; yet the chief reasons for the miscarriage before 
San Domingo were the failure of Venables to command 
the confidence of his officers and men, his inexcusable 
errors in the management of the attack, and the lack of 
cordial co-operation between him and the Admiral. The 
difficulties with which he had to struggle were, of course, 
very great. On the other hand, he seems to have been 
deficient both in strength of character and in military 
capacity ; and his ill-health made still more difficult a 
task for which he was fundamentally incompetent. The 
comparative failure of this, Cromwell's pet enterprise, was 
a bitter blow to the Protector. For a whole day he shut 
himself up in his room, brooding over the disaster for 
which he, more than any other, was responsible. He had 
aimed not merely to plant one more colony in America, 
but to make himself master of such parts of the West 
Indian islands and Spanish Main as would enable him to 
dominate the route of the Spanish-American treasure 
fleets. To this end Jamaica contributed few advantages 
beyond those possessed by Barbadoes and St. Kitts, and 
it was too early for him to realize that island for island 
Jamaica was much more suitable than Hispaniola as the 
seat of an English colony. 2 

Religious and economic motives form the key to 
Cromwell's foreign policy, and it is difficult to discover 

1 Gardiner : Hist, of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, vol. iii. 
ch. xlv. ; Narrative of Gen. Venables. 

2 Gardiner : op. cit., III. p. 368. 

87 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

which, the religious or the economic, was uppermost in 
his mind when he planned this expedition. He inherited 
from the Puritans of Elizabeth's time the traditional 
religious hatred of Spain as the bulwark of Rome, and 
in his mind as in theirs the overthrow of the Spaniards 
in the West Indies was a blow at antichrist and an 
extension of the true religion. The religious ends of 
the expedition were fully impressed upon Venables and 
his successors in Jamaica. 1 Second only, however, to 
Oliver's desire to protect "the people of God," was his 
ambition to extend England's empire beyond the seas. 
He desired the unquestioned supremacy of England 
over the other nations of Europe, and that supremacy, 
as he probably foresaw, was to be commercial and 
colonial. Since the discovery of America the world's 
commerce had enormously increased, and its control 
brought with it national power. America had become 
the treasure-house of Europe. If England was to be set 
at the head of the world's commerce and navigation, 
she must break through Spain's monopoly of the Indies 
and gain a control in Spanish America. San Domingo 
was to be but a preliminary step, after which the rest 
of the Spanish dominions in the New World would be 
gradually absorbed. 2 

The immediate excuse for the attack on Hispaniola 
and Jamaica was the Spaniards' practice of seizing 
English ships and ill-treating English crews merely be- 
cause they were found in some part of the Caribbean 
Sea, and even though bound for a plantation actually in 
possession of English colonists. It was the old question 
of effective occupation versus papal donation, and both 

1 Cf. the ' ' Commission of the Commissioners for the West Indian 
Expedition." (Narrative of Gen. Venables, p. 109.) 

2 Cf. American Hist. Review, vol. iv. p. 228 ; " Instructions unto Gen. 
Robt. Venables." (Narrative of Gen. Venables, p. ill.) 



THE CONQUEST OF JAMAICA 

Cromwell and Venables convinced themselves that 
Spanish assaults in the past on English ships and 
colonies supplied a sufficient casus belli. 1 There was no 
justification, however, for a secret attack upon Spain. 
She had been the first to recognize the young republic, 
and was willing and even anxious to league herself 
with England. There had been actual negotiations for 
an alliance, and Cromwell's offers, though rejected, had 
never been really withdrawn. Without a declaration 
of war or formal notice of any sort, a fleet was fitted 
out and sent in utmost secrecy to fall unawares upon 
the colonies of a friendly nation. The whole aspect 
of the exploit was Elizabethan. It was inspired by 
Drake and Raleigh, a reversion to the Elizabethan 
gold-hunt. It was the first of the great buccaneering 
expeditions. 2 

1 Cf. Narrative of Gen. Venables, pp. 3, 90; "Instructions unto Generall 
Penn," etc., ibid,, p. 107. 

After the outbreak of the Spanish war, Cromwell was anxious to clear his 
government of the charges of treachery and violation of international duties. 
The task was entrusted to the Latin Secretary, John Milton, who on 26th 
October 1655 published a manifesto defending the actions of the Common- 
wealth. He gave two principal reasons for the attempt upon the West 
Indies: — (1) the cruelties of the Spaniards toward the English in America 
and their depredations on English colonies and trade ; (2) the outrageous 
treatment and extermination of the Indians. He denied the Spanish claims 
to all of America, either as a papal gift, or by right of discovery alone, or 
even by right of settlement, and insisted upon both the natural and treaty 
rights of Englishmen to trade in Spanish seas. 

2 The memory of the exploits of Drake and his contemporaries was not 
allowed to die in the first half of the seventeenth century. Books like " Sir 
Francis Drake Revived," and "The World encompassed by Sir Francis 
Drake," were printed time and time again. The former was published in 1626 
and again two years later ; " The World Encompassed " first appeared in 1628 
and was reprinted in 1635 and 1653. A quotation from the title-page of the 
latter may serve to illustrate the temper of the times : — 

Drake, Sir Francis. The world encompassed. Being his next voyage 
to that to Nombre de Dios, formerly imprinted . . . offered . . . especi- 
ally for the stirring up of heroick spirits, to benefit their country and 
eternize their names by like bold attempts. Lon. 1628. 
Cf. also Gardiner, op. cit., III. pp. 343-44. 

89 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Cromwell was doubtless influenced, too, by the 
representations of Thomas Gage. Gage was an English- 
man who had joined the Dominicans and had been 
sent by his Order out to Spanish America. In 164 1 
he returned to England, announced his conversion to 
Protestantism, took the side of Parliament and became 
a minister. His experiences in the West Indies and 
Mexico he published in 1648 under the name of "The 
English-American, or a New Survey of the West 
Indies," a most entertaining book, which aimed to 
arouse Englishmen against Romish "idolatries," to show 
how valuable the Spanish-American provinces might 
be to England in trade and bullion and how easily 
they might be seized. In the summer of 1654, more- 
over, Gage had laid before the Protector a memorial in 
which he recapitulated the conclusions of his book, 
assuring Cromwell that the Spanish colonies were 
sparsely peopled and that the few whites were unwarlike 
and scantily provided with arms and ammunition. He 
asserted that the conquest of Hispaniola and Cuba 
would be a matter of no difficulty, and that even Central 
America was too weak to oppose a long resistance. 1 
All this was true, and had Cromwell but sent a re- 
spectable force under an efficient leader the result 
would have been different. The exploits of the 
buccaneers a few years later proved it. 

It was fortunate, considering the distracted state 
of affairs in Jamaica in 1655-56, that the Spaniards were 
in no condition to attempt to regain the island. Cuba, 
the nearest Spanish territory to Jamaica, was being 
ravaged by the most terrible pestilence known there 
in years, and the inhabitants, alarmed for their own 
safety, instead of trying to dispossess the English, were 

'Gardiner, op. cit. y III. p. 346; cf. also "Present State of Jamaica* 
1683." 

90 



THE CONQUEST OF JAMAICA 

busy providing for the defence of their own coasts. 1 In 1657, 
however, some troops under command of the old Spanish 
governor of Jamaica, D. Christopher Sasi Arnoldo, crossed 
from St Jago de Cuba and entrenched themselves on the 
northern shore as the advance post of a greater force ex- 
pected from the mainland. Papers of instructions relating to 
the enterprise were intercepted by Colonel Doyley, then 
acting-governor of Jamaica ; and he with 500 picked men 
embarked for the north side, attacked the Spaniards in their 
entrenchments and utterly routed them. 2 The next year 
about 1000 men, the long-expected corps of regular Spanish 
infantry, landed and erected a fort at Rio Nuevo. Doyley, 
displaying the same energy, set out again on nth June 
with 750 men, landed under fire on the 22nd, and next 
day captured the fort in a brilliant attack in which about 
300 Spaniards were killed and 100 more, with many 
officers and flags, captured. The English lost about 
sixty in killed and wounded. 3 After the failure of a 
similar, though weaker, attempt in 1660, the Spaniards 
despaired of regaining Jamaica, and most of those still 
upon the island embraced the first opportunity to retire 
to Cuba and other Spanish settlements. 

As colonists the troops in Jamaica proved to be 
very discouraging material, and the army was soon in 
a wretched state. The officers and soldiers plundered 
and mutinied instead of working and planting. Their 
wastefulness led to scarcity of food, and scarcity of food 
brought disease and death. 4 They wished to force the 

'Long: "History of Jamaica," I. p. 260; CS. P. Colon., 1675-76. 
Addenda, No. 274. 

2 Long, op. cit., I. p. 272 ff. 

3 Ibid. ; Thurloe Papers, VI. p. 540; VII. p. 260; "Present State of 
Jamaica, 1683" ; C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76. Addenda, Nos. 303-308. 

« Long, op. cit., I. p. 245 ; C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76. Addenda, Nos. 236, 
261, 276, etc. 

The conditions in Jamaica directly after its capture are in remarkable con- 
trast to what might have been expected after reading the enthusiastic descrip- 

91 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Protector to recall them, or to employ them in assaulting 
the opulent Spanish towns on the Main, an occupation 
far more lucrative than that of planting corn and pro- 
visions for sustenance. Cromwell, however, set himself 
to develop and strengthen his new Colony. He issued 
a proclamation encouraging trade and settlement in the 
island by exempting the inhabitants from taxes, and 
the Council voted that iooo young men and an equal 
number of girls be shipped over from Ireland. The 
Scotch government was instructed to apprehend and 
transport idlers and vagabonds, and commissioners were 
sent into New England and to the Windward and Lee- 
ward Islands to try and attract settlers. 1 Bermudians, 
Jews, Ouakers from Barbadoes and criminals from New- 
gate, helped to swell the population of the new colony, 
and in 1658 the island is said to have contained 4500 
whites, besides 1 500 or more negro slaves. 2 

To dominate the Spanish trade routes was one of the 
principal objects of English policy in the West Indies. 
This purpose is reflected in all of Cromwell's instructions 
to the leaders of the Jamaican design,- and it appears again 
in his instructions of 10th October 1655 to Major-General 
Fortescue and Vice- Admiral Goodson. Fortescue was 
given power and authority to land men upon territory 
claimed by the Spaniards, to take their forts, castles and 
places of strength, and to pursue, kill and destroy all who 
opposed him. The Vice- Admiral was to assist him with 
his sea-forces, and to use his best endeavours to seize all 

tions of the island, its climate, soil and prodncts, left us by Englishmen who 
visited it. Jackson in 1643 compared it with the Arcadian plains and 
Thessalien Tempe, and many of his men wanted to remain and live with the 
Spaniards. See also the description of Jamaica contained in the Rawlinson 
MSS. and written just after the arrival of the English army: — "As for the 
country . . . more than this." (Narrative of Gen. Venables, pp. 158-9.) 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76. Addenda, Nos. 229, 232; Lucas: Historical 
Geography of the British Colonies, II. p. 101, and note. 
2 Lucas, op. eit., II. p. 109. 

92 



THE CONQUEST OF JAMAICA 

ships belonging to the King of Spain or his subjects in 
America. 1 The soldiers, as has been said, were more 
eager to fight the Spaniards than to plant, and oppor- 
tunities were soon given them to try their hand. Admiral 
Penn had left twelve ships under Goodson's charge, and 
of these, six were at sea picking up a few scattered Spanish 
prizes which helped to pay for the victuals supplied out of 
New England. 2 Goodson, however, was after larger prey, 
no less than the galleons or a Spanish town upon the 
mainland. He did not know where the galleons were, 
but at the end of July he seems to have been lying with 
eight vessels before Cartagena and Porto Bello, and on 
22nd November he sent Captain Blake with nine ships to 
the same coast to intercept all vessels going thither from 
Spain or elsewhere. The fleet was broken up by foul 
weather, however, and part returned on 14th December 
to refit, leaving a few small frigates to lie in wait for some 
merchantmen reported to be in that region. 3 The first 
town on the Main to feel the presence of this new power 
in the Indies was Santa Marta, close to Cartagena on the 
shores of what is now the U.S. of Columbia. In the 
latter part of October, just a month before the departure 
of Blake, Goodson sailed with a fleet of eight vessels to 
ravage the Spanish coasts. According to one account his 
original design had been against Rio de la Hacha near 
the pearl fisheries, " but having missed his aim " he sailed 
for Santa Marta. He landed 400 sailors and soldiers 
under the protection of his guns, took and demolished the 
two forts which barred his way, and entered the town. 
Finding that the inhabitants had already fled with as 
much of their belongings as they could carry, he pursued 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76. Addenda, Nos. 230, 231. Fortescue was 
Gen. Venables' successor in Jamaica. 

1 Ibid., No. 218; Long, op. cit., I. p. 262. 

' CS.P. Colon., 1675-76. Addenda, Nos- 218, 252; Thurloe Papers, 
IV. pp. 451.457- 

93 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

them some twelve miles up into the country ; and on his 
return plundered and burnt their houses, embarked with 
thirty pieces of cannon and other booty, and sailed for 
Jamaica. 1 It was a gallant performance with a handful 
of men, but the profits were much less than had been 
expected. It had been agreed that the seamen and 
soldiers should receive half the spoil, but on counting the 
proceeds it was found that their share amounted to no 
more than .£400, to balance which the State took the 
thirty pieces of ordnance and some powder, shot, hides, 
salt and Indian corn. 2 Sedgwick wrote to Thurloe that 
" reckoning all got there on the State's share, it did not 
pay for the powder and shot spent in that servicer's 
Sedgwick was one of the civil commissioners appointed 
for the government of Jamaica. A brave, pious soldier 
with a long experience and honourable military record in 
the Massachusetts colony, he did not approve of this type 
of warfare against the Spaniards. " This kind of maroon- 
ing cruising West India trade of plundering and burning 
towns," he writes, " though it hath been long practised in 
these parts, yet is not honourable for a princely navy, 
neither was it, I think, the work designed, though perhaps 
it may be tolerated at present." If Cromwell was to 
accomplish his original purpose of blocking up the Spanish 
treasure route, he wrote again, permanent foothold must 
be gained in some important Spanish fortress, either 
Cartagena or Havana, places strongly garrisoned, however, 
and requiring for their reduction a considerable army and 
fleet, such as Jamaica did not then possess. But to waste 
and burn towns of inferior rank without retaining them 
merely dragged on the war indefinitely and effected little 
advantage or profit to anybody. 4 Captain Nuberry 

1 Thurloe Papers, IV. pp. 152, 493. 

2 C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76. Addenda, No. 236. 

3 Thurloe Papers, IV. p. 604. 4 Ibid., pp. 454-5, 604. 

94 



THE CONQUEST OF JAMAICA 

visited Santa Marta several weeks after Goodson's descent, 
and, going on shore, found that about a hundred people had 
made bold to return and rebuild their devastated homes. 
Upon sight of the English the poor people again fled 
incontinently to the woods, and Nuberry and his men 
destroyed their houses a second time. 1 

On 5th April 1656 Goodson, with ten of his best ships, 
set sail again and steered eastward along the coast of 
Hispaniola as far as Alta Vela, hoping to meet with some 
Spanish ships reported in that region. Encountering 
none, he stood for the Main, and landed on 4th May with 
about 450 men at Rio de la Hacha. The story of the 
exploit is merely a repetition of what happened at Santa 
Marta. The people had sight of the English fleet six 
hours before it could drop anchor, and fled from the town 
to the hills and surrounding woods. Only twelve men 
were left behind to hold the fort, which the English stormed 
and took within half an hour. Four large brass cannon 
were carried to the ships and the fort partly demolished. 
The Spaniards pretended to parley for the ransom of their 
town, but when after a day's delay they gave no sign of 
complying with the admiral's demands, he burned the place 
on 8th May and sailed away. 2 Goodson called again at 
Santa Marta on the nth to get water, and on the 14th 
stood before Cartagena to view the harbour. Leaving 
three vessels to ply there, he returned to Jamaica, bringing 
back with him only two small prizes, one laden with wine, 
the other with cocoa. 

The seamen of the fleet, however, were restless and 
eager for further enterprises of this nature, and Goodson 
by the middle of June had fourteen of his vessels lying off 
the Cuban coast near Cape S. Antonio in wait for the 
galleons or the Flota, both of which fleets were then 
expected at Havana. His ambition to repeat the achieve- 

' Thurloe Papers, IV. p. 452. 2 Ibid., V. pp. 96, 151. 

95 






BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

ment of Piet Heyn was fated never to be realised. The 
fleet of Terra-Firma, he soon learned, had sailed into 
Havana on 15th May, and on 13th June, three days before 
his arrival on that coast, had departed for Spain. 1 Mean- 
while, one of his own vessels, the " Arms of Holland," was 
blown up, with the loss of all on board but three men and 
the captain, and two other ships were disabled. Five of 
the fleet returned to England on 23rd August, and with 
the rest Goodson remained on the Cuban coast until the 
end of the month, watching in vain for the fleet from 
Vera Cruz which never sailed. 2 

Colonel Edward Doyley, the officer who so promptly 
defeated the attempts of the Spaniards in 1657-58 to 
re-conquer Jamaica, was now governor of the island. He 
had sailed with the expedition to the West Indies as 
lieutenant-colonel in the regiment of General Venables, 
and on the death of Major-General Fortescue in November 
1655 had been chosen by Cromwell's commissioners in 
Jamaica as commander-in-chief of the land forces. In 
May 1656 he was superseded by Robert Sedgwick, but 
the latter died within a few days, and Doyley petitioned 
the Protector to appoint him to the post. William Brayne, 
however, arrived from England in December 1656 to take 
chief command, and when he, like his two predecessors, 
was stricken down by disease nine months later, the place 
devolved permanently upon Doyley. Doyley was a very 
efficient governor, and although he has been accused of 
showing little regard or respect for planting and trade, the 

1 This was the treasure fleet which Captain Stayner's ship and two other 
frigates captured off Cadiz on 9th September. Six galleons were captured, 
sunk or burnt, with no less than ^600,000 of gold and silver. The galleons 
which Blake burnt in the harbour of Santa Cruz, on 20th April 1657, were 
doubtless the Mexican fleet for which Admiral Goodson vainly waited before 
Havana in the previous summer. 

- C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76, Addenda, Nos. 260, 263, 266, 270, 275 
Thurloe Papers, V. p. 340. 

96 



N 



THE CONQUEST OF JAMAICA 

charge appears to be unjust. 1 He firmly maintained order 
among men disheartened and averse to settlement, and at 
the end of his service delivered up the colony a compara- 
tively well-ordered and thriving community. He was 
confirmed in his post by Charles II. at the Restoration, but 
superseded by Lord Windsor in August 1661. Doyley's 
claim to distinction rests mainly upon his vigorous policy 
against the Spaniards, not only in defending Jamaica, but 
by encouraging privateers and carrying the war into the 
enemies' quarters. In July 1658, on learning from some 
prisoners that the galleons were in Porto Bello awaiting 
the plate from Panama, Doyley embarked 300 men on a 
fleet of five vessels and sent it to lie in an obscure bay 
between that port and Cartagena to intercept the Spanish 
ships. On 20th October the galleons were espied, twenty- 
nine vessels in all, fifteen galleons and fourteen stout 
merchantmen. Unfortunately, all the English vessels 
except the " Hector " and the " Marston Moor " were at 
that moment absent to obtain fresh water. Those two 
alone could do nothing, but passing helplessly through the 
Spaniards, hung on their rear and tried without success to 
scatter them. The English fleet later attacked and burnt 
the town of Tolu on the Main, capturing two Spanish 
ships in the road ; and afterwards paid another visit to 
the unfortunate Santa Marta, where they remained three 
days, marching several miles into the country and burning 
and destroying everything in their path. 2 

On 23rd April 1659, however, there returned to Port 
Royal another expedition whose success realised the 
wildest dreams of avarice. Three frigates under command 

1 Cf. Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 12,430: Journal of Col. Beeston. Col. 
Beeston seems to have harboured a peculiar spite against Doyley. For the 
contrary view of Doyley, cf. Long, op. cit., I. p. 284. 

2 C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76. Addenda., Nos. 309, 310. In these letters the 
towns are called " Tralo " and " St. Mark." Cf. also Thurloe Papers, VII. 
p. 340. 

7 97 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

of Captain Christopher Myngs, 1 with 300 soldiers on 
board, had been sent by Doyley to harry the South 
American coast. They first entered and destroyed 
Cumana, and then ranging along the coast westward, 
landed again at Puerto Cabello and at Coro. At the 
latter town they followed the inhabitants into the woods, 
where besides other plunder they came upon twenty-two 
chests of royal treasure intended for the King of Spain, 
each chest containing 400 pounds of silver. 2 Embarking 
this money and other spoil in the shape of plate, jewels 
and cocoa, they returned to Port Royal with the richest 
prize that ever entered Jamaica. The whole pillage was 
estimated at between ^200,000 and ^300,000.3 The 
abundance of new wealth introduced into Jamaica did much 
to raise the spirits of the colonists, and set the island well 
upon the road to more prosperous times. The sequel to 
this brilliant exploit, however, was in some ways unfortunate. 
Disputes were engendered between the officers of the 
expedition and the governor and other authorities on 
shore over the disposal of the booty, and in the early part 
of June 1659 Captain Myngs was sent home in the 
" Marston Moor," suspended for disobeying orders and 
plundering the hold of one of the prizes to the value of 
12,000 pieces of eight. Myngs was an active, intrepid 
commander, but apparently avaricious and impatient of 

1 Captain Christopher Myngs had been appointed to the " Marston Moor," 
a frigate of fifty -four guns, in October 1654, and had seen two years' service in 
the West Indies under Goodson in 1656 and 1657. In May 1656 he took 
part in the sack of Rio de la Hacha. In July 1657 the " Marston Moor" 
returned to England and was ordered to be refitted, but by 20th February 
1658 Myngs and his frigate were again at Port Royal(C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76, 
Addenda, Nos. 295, 297). After Admiral Goodson's return to England 
(Ibid., No. 1202) Myngs seems to have been the chief naval officer in the 
West Indies, and greatly distinguished himself in his naval actions against the 
Spaniards. 

2 Tanner MSS., LI. 82. 

3 C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76, Addenda, Nos. 315, 316. Some figures put it 
as high as ^500.000. 

98 



THE CONQUEST OF JAMAICA 

control. He seems to have endeavoured to divert most 
of the prize money into the pockets of his officers and men, 
by disposing of the booty on his own initiative before 
giving a strict account of it to the governor or steward- 
general of the island. Doyley writes that there was a 
constant market aboard the "Marston Moor," and that 
Myngs and his officers, alleging it to be customary to break 
and plunder the holds, permitted the twenty-two chests of 
the King of Spain's silver to be divided among the men 
without any provision whatever for the claims of the State. 1 
There was also some friction over the disposal of six Dutch 
prizes which Doyley had picked up for illegal trading at 
Barbadoes on his way out from England. These, too, had 
been plundered before they reached Jamaica, and when 
Myngs found that there was no power in the colony to try 
and condemn ships taken by virtue of the Navigation Laws, 
it only added fuel to his dissatisfaction. When Myngs 
reached England he lodged counter-complaints against 
Governor Doyley, Burough, the steward-general, and Vice- 
Admiral Goodson, alleging that they received more than 
their share of the prize money ; and a war of mutual 
recrimination followed. 2 Amid the distractions of the 
Restoration, however, little seems ever to have been made 
of the matter in England. The insubordination of officers 
in 1659-60 was a constant source of difficulty and impedi- 
ment to the governor in his efforts to establish peace and 
order in the colony. In England nobody was sure where 
the powers of government actually resided. As Burough 
wrote from Jamaica on 19th January 1660, "We are here 
just like you at home ; when we heard of the Lord- 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76, Addenda, Nos. 315, 318. Captain Wm. Daly- 
son wrote home, on 23rd January 1659/60, that he verily believed if the 
General (Doyley) were at home to answer for himself, Captain Myngs would 
be found no better than he is, a proud-speaking vain fool, and a knave in 
■cheating the State and robbing merchants. Ibid. , No. 328. 

2 Ibid., Nos. 327, 331. 

99 



7U J 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Protector's death we proclaimed his son, and when we 
heard of his being turned out we proclaimed a Parliament 
and now own a Committee of safety." x The effect of this 
uncertainty was bound to be prejudicial in Jamaica, a new 
colony filled with adventurers, for it loosened the reins of 
authority and encouraged lawless spirits to set the governor 
at defiance. 

On 8th May 1660 Charles II. was proclaimed King of 
England, and entered London on 29th May. The war 
which Cromwell had begun with Spain was essentially a 
war of the Commonwealth. The Spanish court was 
therefore on friendly terms with the exiled prince, and 
when he returned into possession of his kingdom a 
cessation of hostilities with Spain naturally followed. 
Charles wrote a note to Don Luis de Haro on 2nd June 
1660, proposing an armistice in Europe and America 
which was to lead to a permanent peace and a re-establish- 
ment of commercial relations between the two kingdoms. 2 
At the same time Sir Henry Bennett, the English resident 
in Madrid, made similar proposals to the Spanish king. 
A favourable answer was received in July, and the cessa- 
tion of arms, including a revival of the treaty of 1630 
was proclaimed on ioth-20th September 1660. Preliminary 
negotiations for a new treaty were entered upon at 
Madrid, but the marriage of Charles to Catherine of 
Braganza in 1662, and the consequent alliance with 
Portugal, with whom Spain was then at war, put a 
damper upon all such designs. The armistice with Spain 
was not published in Jamaica until 5th February of the 
following year. On 4th February Colonel Doyley received 
from the governor of St. Jago de Cuba a letter enclosing 
an order from Sir Henry Bennett for the cessation of 
arms, and this order Doyley immediately made public.* 

1 CS.P. Colon., 1675-76, Addenda, No. 326. 

2 S.P. Spain, vol. 44, f. 318. 3 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, Nos. 17, 61. 

IOO 



THE CONQUEST OF JAMAICA 

About thirty English prisoners were also returned by the 
Spaniards with the letter. Doyley was confirmed in his 
command of Jamaica by Charles II., but his commission 
was not issued till 8th February i66i. r He was very 
desirous, however, of returning to England to look after 
his private affairs, and on 2nd August another commission 
was issued to Lord Windsor, appointing him as Doyley's 
successor. 2 Just a year later, in August 1662, Windsor 
arrived at Port Royal, fortified with instructions "to 
endeavour to obtain and preserve a good correspondence 
and free commerce with the plantations belonging to the 
King of Spain," even resorting to force if necessary .3 

The question of English trade with the Spanish 
colonies in the Indies had first come to the surface in the 
negotiations for the treaty of 1604, after the long wars 
between Elizabeth and Philip II. The endeavour of the 
Spaniards to obtain an explicit prohibition of commerce 
was met by the English demand for entire freedom. The 
Spaniards protested that it had never been granted in 
former treaties or to other nations, or even without 
restriction to Spanish subjects, and clamoured for at least 
a private article on the subject ; but the English com- 
missioners steadfastly refused, and offered to forbid trade 
only with ports actually under Spanish authority. Finally 
a compromise was reached in the words " in quibus ante 
bellum fuit commercium, juxta et secundum usum et 
observantiam." 4 This article was renewed in Cottington's 

1 C.S.P. Colon,, 1661-68, No. 20. 2 Ibid., No. 145. 

3 Ibid., Nos. 259, 278. In Lord Windsor's original instructions of 2lst 
March 1662 he was empowered to search ships suspected of trading with the 
Spaniards and to adjudicate the same in the Admiralty Court. A fortnight 
later, however, the King and Council seem to have completely changed their 
point of view, and this too in spite of the Navigation Laws which prohibited 
the colonies from trading with any but the mother-country. 

4 Art. ix. of the treaty. Cf. Dumont : Corps diplomatique, T.V., pt. ii. 
p. 625. Cf. also C.S.P. Venetian, 1604, ip. 189: — "I wished to hear from 
His Majesty's own lips" (wrote the Venetian ambassador in November 1604), 

IOI -. 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Treaty of 1630. The Spaniards themselves, indeed, in 
1630, were willing to concede a free navigation in the 
American seas, and even offered to recognise the English 
colony of Virginia if Charles I. would admit articles pro- 
hibiting trade and navigation in certain harbours and 
bays. Cottington, however, was too far-sighted, and 
wrote to Lord Dorchester : " For my own part, I shall 
ever be far from advising His Majesty to think of such 
restrictions, for certainly a little more time will open the 
navigation to those parts so long as there are no negative 
capitulations or articles to hinder it." x The monopolistic 
pretensions of the Spanish government were evidently 
relaxing, for in 1634 the Conde de Humanes confided to 
the English agent, Taylor, that there had been talk in 
the Council of the Indies of admitting the English to a 
share in the freight of ships sent to the West Indies, and 
even of granting them a limited permission to go to those 
regions on their own account. And in 1637 the Conde de 
Linhares, recently appointed governor of Brazil, told the 
English ambassador, Lord Aston, that he was very 
anxious that English ships should do the carrying between 
Lisbon and Brazilian ports. 

The settlement of the Windward and Leeward Islands 
and the conquest of Jamaica had given a new impetus to 
contraband trade. The commercial nations were setting 
up shop, as it were, at the very doors of the Spanish 
Indies. The French and English Antilles, condemned 
by the Navigation Laws to confine themselves to agriculture 
and a passive trade with the home country, had no re- 
course but to traffic with their Spanish neighbours. 

" how he read the clause about the India navigation, and I said, ' Sire, your 
subjects may trade with Spain and Flanders but not with the Indies.' ' Why 
not?' said the King. 'Because,' I replied, 'the clause is read in that sense.' 
'They are making a great error, whoever they are that hold this view,' said 
His Majesty ; ' the meaning is quite clear.' " 
1 S.P. Spain, vol. 35. 

I02 



THE CONQUEST OF JAMAICA 

Factors of the Assiento established at Cartagena, Porto 
Bello and Vera Cruz every year supplied European 
merchants with detailed news of the nature and quantity 
of the goods which might be imported with advantage ; 
while the buccaneers, by dominating the whole Caribbean 
Sea, hindered frequent communication between Spain and 
her colonies. It is not surprising, therefore, that the 
commerce of Seville, which had hitherto held its own, 
decreased with surprising rapidity, that the sailings of the 
galleons and the Flota were separated by several years, 
and that the fairs of Porto Bello and Vera Cruz were 
almost deserted. To put an effective restraint, moreover, 
upon this contraband trade was impossible on either side. 
The West Indian dependencies were situated far from 
the centre of authority, while the home governments 
generally had their hands too full of other matters to 
adequately control their subjects in America. The 
Spanish viceroys, meanwhile, and the governors in the 
West Indian Islands, connived at a practice which lined 
their own pockets with the gold of bribery, and at the 
same time contributed to the public interest and prosperity 
of their respective colonies. It was this illicit commerce 
with Spanish America which Charles II., by negotiation at 
Madrid and by instructions to his governors in the West 
Indies, tried to get within his own control. At the 
Spanish court, Fanshaw, Sandwich and Godolphin in turn 
were instructed to sue for a free trade with the Colonies. 
The Assiento of negroes was at this time held by two 
Genoese named Grillo and Lomelin, and with them the 
English ambassadors several times entered into negotia- 
tion for the privilege of supplying blacks from the English 
islands. By the treaty of 1670 the English colonies in 
America were for the first time formally recognised by the 
Spanish Crown. Freedom of commerce, however, was as 

far as ever from realisation, and after this date Charles 

103 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

seems to have given up hope of ever obtaining it through 
diplomatic channels. 

The peace of 1660 between England and Spain was 
supposed to extend to both sides of the " Line." The 
Council in Jamaica, however, were of the opinion that it 
applied only to Europe, 1 and from the tenor of Lord 
Windsor's instructions it may be inferred that the English 
Court at that time meant to interpret it with the same 
limitations, Windsor, indeed, was not only instructed to 
force the Spanish colonies to a free trade, but was em- 
powered to call upon the governor of Barbadoes for aid 
"in case of any considerable attempt by the Spaniards 
against Jamaica." 2 The efforts of the Governor, however, 
to come to a good correspondence with the Spanish 
colonies were fruitless. In the minutes of the Council of 
Jamaica of 20th August 1662, we read : " Resolved that the 
letters from the Governors of Porto Rico and San Domingo 
are an absolute denial of trade, and that according to His 
Majesty's instructions to Lord Windsor a trade by force 
or otherwise be endeavoured ; " 3 and under 1 2th September 
we find another resolution "that men be enlisted for 
a design by sea with the ' Centurion ' and other vessels." * 
This " design " was an expedition to capture and destroy 
St. Jago de Cuba, the Spanish port nearest to Jamaican 
shores. An attack upon St. Jago had been projected by 
Goodson as far back as 1655. "The Admiral," wrote 
Major Sedgwick to Thurloe just after his arrival in 
Jamaica, "was intended before our coming in to have 
taken some few soldiers and gone over to St. Jago de 
Cuba, a town upon Cuba, but our coming hindered him 
without whom we could not well tell how to do anything." 5 
In January 1656 the plan was definitely abandoned, be- 

1 C.S. P. Colon. , 1661-68, No. 61. 2 Ibid. , No. 259. 

3 Ibid., No. 355. * Ibid., No. 364. 

s Thurloe Papers, IV. p. 154. 
104 



THE CONQUEST OF JAMAICA 

cause the colony could not spare a sufficient number of 
soldiers for the enterprise. 1 It was to St. Jago that the 
Spaniards, driven from Jamaica, mostly betook themselves, 
and from St. Jago as a starting-point had come the ex- 
pedition of 1658 to reconquer the island. The instructions 
of Lord Windsor afforded a convenient opportunity to 
avenge past attacks and secure Jamaica from molestation 
in that quarter for the future. The command of the ex- 
pedition was entrusted to Myngs, who in 1662 was again 
in the Indies on the frigate "Centurion." Myngs sailed 
from Port Royal on 21st September with eleven ships and 
1300 men, 2 but, kept back by unfavourable winds, did not 
sight the castle of St. Jago until 5th October. Although 
he had intended to force the entrance of the harbour, he 
was prevented by the prevailing land breeze ; so he dis- 
embarked his men to windward, on a rocky coast, where the 
path up the bluffs was so narrow that but one man could 
march at a time. Night had fallen before all were landed, 
and " the way (was) soe difficult and the night soe dark 
that they were forced to make stands and fires, and their 
guides with brands in their hands, to beat the path." 3 At 
daybreak they reached a plantation by a river's side, some 
six miles from the place of landing and three from St. 
Jago. There they refreshed themselves, and advancing 
upon the town surprised the enemy, who knew of the late 
landing and the badness of the way and did not expect 
them so soon. They found 200 Spaniards at the entrance 
to the town, drawn up under their governor, Don Pedro 
de Moralis, and supported by Don Christopher de Sasi 
Arnoldo, the former Spanish governor of Jamaica, with a 
reserve of 500 more. The Spaniards fled before the first 
charge of the Jamaicans, and the place was easily mastered. 

1 Thurloe Papers, IV. p. 457. 2 Beeston's Journal. 

3 Calendar of the Heathcote MSS. (pr. by Hist. MSS. Commiss.), 

P- 34- 

105 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

The next day parties were despatched into the country 
to pursue the enemy, and orders sent to the fleet to attack 
the forts at the mouth of the harbour. This was success- 
fully done, the Spaniards deserting the great castle after 
firing but two muskets. Between scouring the country 
for hidden riches, most of which had been carried far 
inland beyond their reach, and dismantling and demolish- 
ing the forts, the English forces occupied their time until 
October 19th. Thirty-four guns were found in the fortifi- 
cations and 1000 barrels of powder. Some of the guns were 
carried to the ships and the rest flung over the precipice 
into the sea ; while the powder was used to blow up the 
castle and the neighbouring country houses. 1 The ex- 
pedition returned to Jamaica on 22nd October. 2 Only 
six men had been killed by the Spaniards, twenty more 
being lost by other "accidents." Of these twenty some 
must have been captured by the enemy, for when Sir 
Richard Fanshaw was appointed ambassador to Spain in 
January 1664, he was instructed among other things to 
negotiate for an exchange of prisoners taken in the Indies. 
In July we find him treating for the release of Captain 
Myngs' men from the prisons of Seville and Cadiz,s and 
on 7th November an order to this effect was obtained 
from the King of Spain.4 

The instructions of Lord Windsor gave him leave, 
as soon as he had settled the government in Jamaica, to 
appoint a deputy and return to England to confer with the 
King on colonial affairs. Windsor sailed for England on 
28th October, and on the same day Sir Charles Lyttleton's 
commission as deputy-governor was read in the Jamaican 
Council. 5 During his short sojourn of three months the 

'Calendar of the Heathcote MSS., p. 34. Cf. also C.S.P. Colon., 
1661-68, No. 384: — "An act for the sale of five copper guns taken at St. 
J ago de Cuba." 

2 Beeston's Journal. 3 S.P. Spain, vol. 46. 

•» Ibid., vol. 47. 5 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, Nos. 294, 375. 

106 



THE CONQUEST OF JAMAICA 

Governor had made considerable progress toward establish- 
ing an ordered constitution in the island. He disbanded 
the old army, and reorganised the military under a stricter 
discipline and better officers. He systematised legal pro- 
cedure and the rules for the conveyance of property. He 
erected an Admiralty Court at Port Royal, and above all, 
probably in pursuance of the recommendation of Colonel 
Doyley, 1 had called in all the privateering commissions 
issued by previous governors, and tried to submit the 
captains to orderly rules by giving them new commissions, 
with instructions to bring their Spanish prizes to Jamaica 
for judicature. 2 

The departure of Windsor did not put a stop to 
the efforts of the Jamaicans to " force a trade " with the 
Spanish plantations, and we find the Council, on nth 
December 1662, passing a motion that to this end an 
attempt should be made to leeward on the coasts of Cuba, 
Honduras and the Gulf of Campeache. On 9th and 
10th January between 1500 and 1600 soldiers, many of 
them doubtless buccaneers, were embarked on a fleet of 
twelve ships and sailed two days later under command 
of the redoubtable Myngs. About ninety leagues this 
side of Campeache the fleet ran into a great storm, in 
which one of the vessels foundered and three others were 
separated from their fellows. The English reached the 
coast of Campeache, however, in the early morning of 
Friday, 9th February, and landing a league and a half 
from the town, marched without being seen along an 
Indian path with "such speed and good fortune" that 
by ten o'clock in the morning they were already masters 
of the city and of all the forts save one, the Castle of 
Santa Cruz. At the second fort Myngs was wounded by 
a gun in three places. The town itself, Myngs reported, 
might have been defended like a fortress, for the houses 

' Brit. Mus., Add MSS., 1 1,410, f. 16. 'Ibid., f. 6. 

107 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

were contiguous and strongly built of stone with flat roofs. 1 
The forts were partly demolished, a portion of the town 
was destroyed by fire, and the fourteen sail lying in the 
harbour were seized by the invaders. Altogether the booty 
must have been considerable. The Spanish licentiate, 
Maldonado de Aldana, placed it at 150,000 pieces of eight, 2 
and the general damage to the city in the destruction of 
houses and munitions by the enemy, and in the expenditure ; 
of treasure for purposes of defence, at half a million more. 
Myngs and his fleet sailed away on 23rd February, but the 1 
"Centurion" did not reach Port Royal until 13th April, 
and the rest of the fleet followed a few days later. The J 
number of casualties on each side was surprisingly small. I 
The invaders lost only thirty men killed, and the Spaniards I 
between fifty and sixty, but among the latter were the i 
two alcaldes and many other officers and prominent 1 
citizens of the town. 3 

To satisfactorily explain at Madrid these two pre- I 
sumptuous assaults upon Spanish territory in America \ 

1 Dampier also says of Campeache that ' ' it makes a fine show, being built '.« 
all with good stone . . . the roofs flattish after the Spanish fashion, and I 
covered with pantile." — Ed. 1906, ii. p. 147. 

2 However, the writer of the " Present State of Jamaica " says (p. 39) \ 
that Myngs got no great plunder, neither at Campeache nor at St. Jago. 

3 Beeston's Journal ; Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 13,964, f. 16: — "Original 
letter from the Licentiate Maldonado de Aldana to Don Francisco Calderon 
y Romero, giving him an account of the taking of Campeache in 1663 " ; dated 
Campeache, March 1663. 

According to the Spanish relation there were fourteen vessels in the 1 
English fleet, one large ship of forty-four guns (the ( ' Centurion " ?) and thirteen 
smaller ones. The discrepancy in the numbers of the fleet may be explained 
by the probability that other Jamaican privateering vessels joined it after its 
departure from Port Royal. Beeston writes in his Journal that the privateer 
"Blessing," Captain Mitchell, commander, brought news on 28th February 
that the Spaniards in Campeache had notice from St. Jago of the English 
design and made elaborate preparations for the defence of the town. This is 
contradicted by the Spanish report, in which it appears that the authorities 
in Campeache had been culpably negligent in not maintaining the defences 
with men, powder or provisions. 

108 



THE CONQUEST OF JAMAICA 

was an embarrassing problem for the English Govern- 
ment, especially as Myngs' men imprisoned at Seville and 
Cadiz were said to have produced commissions to justify 
their actions. 1 The Spanish king instructed his resident 
in London to demand whether Charles accepted responsi- 
bility for the attack upon St. J ago, and the proceedings of 
English cases in the Spanish courts arising from the de- 
predations of Galician corsairs were indefinitely suspended. 2 
When, however, there followed upon this, in May 1663, the 
news of the sack and burning of Campeache, it stirred up 
the greatest excitement in Madrid. 3 Orders and, what 
was rarer in Spain, money were immediately sent to 
Cadiz to the Duke of Albuquerque to hasten the work on 
the royal Armada for despatch to the Indies ; and efforts 
were made to resuscitate the defunct Armada de Bar- 
lovento, a small fleet which had formerly been used to 
catch interlopers and protect the coasts of Terra-Firma. 
In one way the capture of Campeache had touched Spain 
in her most vulnerable spot. The Mexican Flota, which 
was scheduled to sail from Havana in June 1663, refused to 
stir from its retreat at Vera Cruz until the galleons from 
Porto Bello came to convoy it. The arrival of the American 
treasure in Spain was thus delayed for two months, and 
the bankrupt government put to sore straits for money. 

The activity of the Spaniards, however, was merely a 
blind to hide their own impotence, and their clamours 
were eventually satisfied by the King of England's writing 
to Deputy-Governor Lyttleton a letter forbidding all such 
undertakings for the future. The text of the letter is as 
follows : " Understanding with what jealousy and offence 
the Spaniards look upon our island of Jamaica, and how 
disposed they are to make some attempt upon it, and 

1 S.P. Spain, vol. 46. Fanshaw to Sec. Bennet, I3th-23rd July 1664. 

2 Ibid., vol. 45. Letter of Consul Rumbold, 31st March 1663. 

3 Ibid., 4th May 1663. 

109 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

knowing how disabled it will remain in its own defence if 
encouragement be given to such undertakings as have 
lately been set on foot, and are yet pursued, and which 
divert the inhabitants from that industry which alone can 
render the island considerable, the king signifies his dis- 
like of all such undertakings, and commands that no such 
be pursued for the future, but that they unitedly apply 
themselves to the improvement of the plantation and 
keeping the force in proper condition." ] The original draft 
of the letter was much milder in tone, and betrays the real 
attitude of Charles II. toward these half-piratical enter- 
prises : " His Majesty has heard of the success of the 
undertaking upon Cuba, in which he cannot choose but 
please himself in the vigour and resolution wherein it was 
performed, . . . but because His Majesty cannot foresee any 
utility likely to arise thereby . . . [he] has thought fit hereby 
to command him to give no encouragement to such under- 
takings unless they may be performed by the frigates or 
men-of-war attending that place without any addition 
from the soldiers or inhabitants." 2 Other letters were 
subsequently sent to Jamaica, which made it clear that the 
war of the privateers was not intended to be called off by 
the king's instructions ; and Sir Charles Lyttleton, there- 
fore, did not recall their commissions. Nevertheless, in the 
early part of 1664, the assembly in Jamaica passed an act ! 
prohibiting public levies of men upon foreign designs, and 
forbidding any person to leave the island on any such 
design without first obtaining leave from the governor, 
council and assembly. 3 

When the instructions of the authorities at home were 
so ambiguous, and the incentives to corsairing so alluring, 
it was natural that this game of baiting the Spaniards 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 443. Dated 28th April 1663. 

2 Ibid. , Nos. 441, 442. 

3 Rawlinson MSS., A. 347, f. 62. 

IIO 



THE CONQUEST OF JAMAICA 

should suffer little interruption. English freebooters who 
had formerly made Hispaniola and Tortuga their head- 
quarters now resorted to Jamaica, where they found a 
cordial welcome and a better market for their plunder. 
Thus in June 1663 a certain Captain Barnard sailed from 
Port Royal to the Orinoco, took and plundered the town 
of Santo Tomas and returned in the following March. 1 
On 19th October another privateer named Captain Cooper 
brought into Port Royal two Spanish prizes, the larger of 
which, the "Maria" of Seville, was a royal azogue and 
carried 1000 quintals of quicksilver for the King of Spain's 
mines in Mexico, besides oil, wine and olives. 2 Cooper in 
his fight with the smaller vessel so disabled his own ship 
that he was forced to abandon it and enter the prize ; and 
it was while cruising off Hispaniola in this prize that he 
fell in with the " Maria," and captured her after a four hours' 
combat. There were seventy prisoners, among them a 
number of friars going to Campeache and Vera Cruz. 
Some of the prize goods were carried to England, and 
Don Patricio Moledi, the Spanish resident in London, 
importuned the English government for its restora- 
tion. 3 Sir Charles Lyttleton had sailed for England on 
2nd May 1664, leaving the government of Jamaica in the 
hands of the Council with Colonel Thomas Lynch as 
president ; 4 and on his arrival in England he made formal 
answer to the complaints of Moledi. His excuse was that 
Captain Cooper's commission had been derived not from 
the deputy-governor himself but from Lord Windsor ; and 
that the deputy-governor had never received any order 
from the king for recalling commissions, or for the 
cessation of hostilities against the Spaniards. 5 Lyttleton 

1 Beeston's Journal. 

- C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 571 ; Beeston's Journal. 

3 S.P. Spain, vol. 46, ff. 94, 96, 108, 121, 123, 127, 309 (April-August 1664). 

* C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, Nos. 697, 744, 812. 

s S.P. Spain, vol. 46, f. 280. 

Ill 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

and the English government were evidently attempting 
the rather difficult circus feat of riding two mounts at the 
same time. The instructions from England, as Lyttleton 
himself acknowledged in his letter of 15th October 1663, 
distinctly forbade further hostilities against the Spanish 
plantations ; on the other hand, there were no specific 
orders that privateers should be recalled. Lyttleton was 
from first to last in sympathy with the freebooters, and 
probably believed with many others of his time that " the 
Spaniard is most pliable when best beaten." In August 
1664 he presented to the Lord Chancellor his reasons for 
advocating a continuance of the privateers in Jamaica. 
They are sufficiently interesting to merit a resume of the 
principal points advanced. 1st. Privateering maintained a 
great number of seamen by whom the island was pro- 
tected without the immediate necessity of a naval force. 
2nd. If privateering were forbidden, the king would lose 
many men who, in case of a war in the West Indies, would 
be of incalculable service, being acquainted, as they were, 
with the coasts, shoals, currents, winds, etc., of the Spanish 
dominions. 3rd. Without the privateers, the Jamaicans 
would have no intelligence of Spanish designs against them, 
or of the size or neighbourhood of their fleets, or of the 
strength of their resources. 4th. If prize-goods were no 
longer brought into Port Royal, few merchants would resort 
to Jamaica and prices would become excessively high. 5th. 
To reduce the privateers would require a large number 
of frigates at considerable trouble and expense; English 
seamen, moreover, generally had the privateering spirit 
and would be more ready to join with them than oppose 
them, as previous experience had shown. Finally, the 
privateers, if denied the freedom of Jamaican ports, would 
not take to planting, but would resort to the islands of 
other nations, and perhaps prey upon English commerce. 2 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, Nos. 524, 566. 2 S.P. Spain, vol. 46, f. 311. 

112 



CHAPTER IV 

TORTUGA — 1655-1664 

WHEN the Chevalier de Fontenay was driven from 
Tortuga in January 1654, the Spaniards left a 
small garrison to occupy the fort and prevent 
further settlements of French and English buccaneers. 
These troops possessed the island for about eighteen 
months, but on the approach of the expedition under Penn 
and Venables were ordered by the Conde de Penalva, 
President of S. Domingo, to demolish the fort, bury the 
artillery and other arms, and retire to his aid in Hispaniola. 1 

1 Dutertre, t. iii. p. 126 ; Add. MSS., 13,992, f. 499. 

On 26th February 1656 there arrived at Jamaica a small vessel the 
master of which, touching at Tortuga, had found upon the deserted island two 
papers, one in Spanish, the other in " sorrie English " (Thurloe Papers, IV. 
p. 601). These papers were copies of a proclamation forbidding settlement on 
the island, and the English paper (Rawl. MSS., A. 29, f. 500) is printed in 
Firth's " Venables " as follows : — 

" The Captane and Sarginge Mager Don Baltearsor Calderon and 
Spenoso, Nopte to the President that is now in the sity of Santo-domingo, and 
Captane of the gones of the sitye, and Governor and Lord Mare of this 
Island, and stranch of this Lland of Tortogo, and Chefe Comander of all for 
the Khinge of Spaine. 

" Yoo moust understand that all pepell what soever that shall com to this 
Hand of the Khinge of Spaine Catholok wich is name is Don Pilep the 
Ostere the forth of this name, that with his harmes he hath put of Feleminge 
and French men and Englesh with lefee heare from the yeare of 1630 tell the 
yeare of thurty fouer and tell the yeare of fifte fouer in wich the Kinge of 
Spane uesenge all curtyse and given good quartell to all that was upon this 
Hand, after that came and with oute Recepet upon this Hand knowinge that 
the Kinge of Spane had planted upon it and fortified in the name of the Kinge 
came the forth time the 15th of Augost the last yeare French and Fleminges 
to govern this Hand the same Governeore that was heare befor his name was 
Themeleon hot man De founttana gentleman of the ourder of Guresalem for 
to take this Hand put if fources by se and land and forsed us to beate him oute 
of this place with a greate dale of shame, and be caues yoo shall take notes 
8 113 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Some six months later an Englishman, Elias Watts, 1 with 
his family and ten or twelve others, came from Jamaica 
in a shallop, re-settled the island, and raised a battery of 
four guns upon the ruins of the larger fort previously 
erected by the French. Watts received a commission for 
the island from General Brayne, who was then governor 
of Jamaica, and in a short time gathered about him a 
colony of about 1 50, both English and French. Among 
these new-comers was a " poor distressed gentleman " by 
the name of James Arundell, formerly a colonel in the 
Royalist army and now banished from England, who 
eventually married Watts' daughter and became the head 
of the colony. 

It was while Watts was governor of Tortuga, if we are 
to believe the Jesuit, Dutertre, that the buccaneers 
determined to avenge the treachery of the Spaniards 
to a French vessel in that neighbourhood by plunder- 
ing the city of St. Jago in Hispaniola. According to this 
historian, who from the style of the narrative seems to be 
reporting the words of an eye-witness, the buccaneers, 
including doubtless both hunters and corsairs, formed a 
party of 400 men under the leadership of four captains and 
obtained a commission for the enterprise from the English 
governor, who was very likely looking forward to a share 

that wee have puelld doune the Casill and carid all the gonenes and have 
puelld doune all the houes and have lefte no thinge, the same Captane and 
Sargint-mager in the name of the Kinge wich God blesh hath given yoo notis 
that what souer nason souer that shall com to live upon this Hand that thare 
shall not a man mother or children cape of the sorde, thare fore I give notiss 
to all pepell that they shall have a care with out anye more notis for this is the 
order of the Kinge and with out fall you will not want yooer Pamente and this 
is the furst and second and thorde time, and this whe leave heare for them that 
comes hear to take notis, that when wee com upon you, you shall not pleate 
that you dod not know is riten the 25 of August 1656. 

Baltesar Calderon Por Mandado de Senor Gouor. 

y Espinosa Pedro Franco de riva deney xasuss. 

1 In Dutertre's account the name is Eliazouard (Elias Ward). 

2 Dutertre, t. iii. pp. 127-29 ; Rawl. MSS., A. 347, p. 31. 

114 



TORTUGA— 1655-1664 

of the booty. Compelling the captain of a frigate which 
had just arrived from Nantes to lend his ship, they em- 
barked in it and in two or three other boats found on the 
coast for Puerta de Plata, where they landed on Palm 
Sunday of 1659. 1 St. Jago, which lay in a pleasant, fertile 
plain some fifteen or twenty leagues in the interior of 
Hispaniola, they approached through the woods on the 
night of Holy Wednesday, entered before daybreak, and 
surprised the governor in his bed. The buccaneers told 
him to prepare to die, whereupon he fell on his knees 
and prayed to such effect that they finally offered him his 
life for a ransom of 60,000 pieces of eight. They pillaged 
for twenty-four hours, taking even the bells, ornaments and 
sacred vessels of the churches, and after refreshing them- 
selves with fr *id drink, retreated with their plunder 
and prisoners, including the governor and chief inhabitants. 
Meanwhile the alarm had been given for ten or twelve 
leagues round about. Men came in from all directions, 
and rallying with the inhabitants of the town till they 
amounted to about 1000 men, marched through the woods 
by a by-route, got ahead of the buccaneers and attacked 
them from ambush. The English and French stood their 
ground in spite of inferior numbers, for they were all good 
marksmen and every shot told. As the Spaniards per- 
sisted, however, they finally threatened to stab the 
governor and all the other prisoners, whereupon the 
Spaniards took counsel and retired to their homes. The 
invaders lost only ten killed and five or six wounded. 
They tarried on the coast several days waiting for the rest 
of the promised ransom, but as it failed to arrive they 
liberated the prisoners and returned to Tortuga, each adven- 
turer receiving 300 crowns as his share of the pillage. 2 

"According to a Spanish account of the expedition he date was 1661^ 
Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 13,992, f. 499. 
2 Dutertre, torn. hi. pp. 130-34. 

115 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

In the latter part of 1659 a French gentleman, Jeremie 
Deschamps, seigneur du Rausset, who had been one of the 
first inhabitants of Tortuga under Levasseur and de 
Fontenay, repaired to England and had sufficient influence 
there to obtain an order from the Council of State to 
Colonel Doyley to give him a commission as governor of 
Tortuga, with such instructions as Doyley might think 
requisite. 1 This same du Rausset, it seems, had received 
a French commission from Louis XIV. as early as 
November 1656. 2 At any rate, he came to Jamaica in 
1660 and obtained his commission from Doyley on con- 
dition that he held Tortuga in the English interest. 3 
Watts, it seems, had meanwhile learnt that he was to be 
superseded by a Frenchman, whereupon he embarked with 
his family and all his goods and sought refuge in New 
England. About two months later, according to one 
story, Doyley heard that Deschamps had given a commis- 
sion to a privateer and committed insolences for which 
Doyley feared to be called to account. He sent to 
remonstrate with him, but Deschamps answered that he 
possessed a French commission and that he had better 
interest with the powers in England than had the governor 
of Jamaica. As there were more French than English on 
the island, Deschamps then proclaimed the King of France 
and set up the French colours. 4 Doyley as yet had 
received no authority from the newly - restored king, 

'Rawl. MSS., A. 347, ff. 31 and 36 ; S.P Spain, vol. 47 : — Deposition of 
Sir Charles Lyttleton; Margry, op. cit., p. 281. 

2 Charlevoix, op. cit., liv. vii. p. 36 ; Vaissiere, op. cit. t p. 10. 

3 According to Dutertre, Deschamps' commission extended only to the 
French inhabitants upon Tortuga, the French and English living thereafter 
under separate governments as at St. Kitts. Dutertre, t. iii. p. 135. 

4Rawl. MSS., A. 347, f. 36. 

According to Dutertre's version, Watts had scarcely forsaken the island • 
when Deschamps arrived in the Road, and found that the French inhabitants 
had already made themselves masters of the colony and had substituted the 
French for the English standard. Dutertre, t. iii. p. 136. 

116 



TORTUGA— 1655- 1664 

Charles II., and hesitated to use any force ; but he did 
give permission to Arundell, Watts' son-in-law, to surprise 
Deschamps and carry him to Jamaica for trial. Deschamps 
was absent at the time at Santa Cruz, but Arundell, 
relying upon the friendship and esteem which the inhabi- 
tants had felt for his father-in-law, surprised the governor's 
nephew and deputy, the Sieur de la Place, and possessed 
himself of the island. By some mischance or neglect, 
however, he was disarmed by the French and sent back to 
Jamaica. 1 This was not the end of his misfortunes. On 
the way to Jamaica he and his company were sur- 
prised by Spaniards in the bay of Matanzas in Cuba, 
and carried to Puerto Principe. There, after a month's 
imprisonment, Arundell and Barth. Cock, his shipmaster, 
were taken out by negroes into the bush and murdered, 
and their heads brought into the town. 2 Deschamps later 
returned to France because of ill-health, leaving la Place 
to govern the island in his stead, and when the property of 
the French Antilles was vested in the new French West 
India Company in 1664 he was arrested and sent to the 
Bastille. The cause of his arrest is obscure, but it seems 
that he had been in correspondence with the English 
government, to whom he had offered to restore Tortuga on 
condition of being reimbursed with £6000 sterling. A 
few days in the Bastille made him think better of his 
resolution. He ceded his rights to the company for 
15,000 livres, and was released from confinement in 
November. 3 

The fiasco of Arundell's attempt was not the only effort 
of the English to recover the island. In answer to a 
memorial presented by Lord Windsor before his departure 
for Jamaica, an Order in Council was delivered to him in 

'Rawl. MSS., A. 347, f. 36. 
3 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 648. 
3 Dutertre, t. iii. p. 138 5 Vaissiere, op. cit., p. II, note 2. 
117 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

February 1662, empowering him to use his utmost en- 
deavours to reduce Tortuga and its governor to obedience. 1 
The matter was taken up by the Jamaican Council in 
September, shortly after Windsor's arrival ; 2 and on 16th 
December an order was issued by deputy-governor Lyttle- 
ton to Captain Robert Munden of the "Charles" frigate 
for the transportation of Colonel Samuel Barry and Captain 
Langford to Tortuga, where Munden was to receive orders 
for reducing the island. 3 The design miscarried again, 
however, probably because of ill-blood between Barry 
and Munden. Clement de Plenneville, who accom- 
panied Barry, writes that " the expedition failed through 
treachery " ; 4 and Beeston says in his Journal that Barry, 
approaching Tortuga on 30th January, found the French 
armed and ready to oppose him, whereupon he ordered 
Captain Munden to fire. Munden however refused, sailed 
away to Corydon in Hispaniola, where he put Barry and 
his men on shore, and then "went away about his 
merchandize." 5 Barry made his way in a sloop to Jamaica 
where he arrived on 1st March. Langford, however, was 
sent to Petit-Goave, an island about the size of Tortuga in 
the cul-de-sac at the western end of Hispaniola, where he 
was chosen governor by the inhabitants and raised the 
first English standard. Petit-Goave had been frequented 
by buccaneers since 1659, and after d'Ogeron succeeded 

1 CS.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 233. * Ibid., No. 364. 

3 Ibid., No. 390; cf. also No. 474 (1). * Ibid., No. 475. 

s Beeston's Journal, 1st March 1663. 

According to Dutertre, some inhabitants of Tortuga ran away to Jamaica 
and persuaded the governor that they could no longer endure French domina- 
tion, and that if an armed force was sent, it would find no obstacle in restoring 
the English king's authority. Accordingly Col. Barry was despatched to 
receive their allegiance, with orders to use no violence but only to accept 
their voluntary submission. When Barry landed on Tortuga, however, with 
no other support than a proclamation and a harangue, the French inhabitants 
laughed in his face, and he returned to Jamaica in shame and confusion. 
Dutertre, t. iii. pp. 137-38. 

Il8 



TORTUGA— 1655-1664 

du Rausset as governor for the French in those regions, it 
became with Tortuga one of their chief resorts. In the 
latter part of 1664 we find Langford in England petitioning 
the king for a commission as governor of Tortuga and the 
coast of Hispaniola, and for two ships to go and seize the 
smaller island. 1 Such a design, however, with the direct 
sanction and aid of the English government, might have 
endangered a rupture with France. Charles preferred to 
leave such irregular warfare to his governor in Jamaica, 
whom he could support or disown as best suited the exi- 
gencies of the moment. Langford, moreover, seems not 
to have made a brilliant success of his short stay at Petit- 
Goave, and was probably distrusted by the authorities both 
in England and in the West Indies. When Modyford 
came as governor to Jamaica, the possibility of recovering 
Tortuga was still discussed, but no effort to effect it was 
ever made again. 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, Nos. 817-21. 



119 



CHAPTER V 

PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

ON 4th January 1664, the king wrote to Sir Thomas 
Modyford in Barbadoes that he had chosen him 
governor of Jamaica. 1 Modyford, who had lived 
as a planter in Barbadoes since 1650, had taken a pro- 
minent share in the struggles between Parliamentarians 
and Royalists in the little island. He was a member of 
the Council, and had been governor for a short time in 
1660. His commission and instructions for Jamaica 2 were 
carried to the West Indies by Colonel Edward Morgan, 
who went as Modyford's deputy-governor and landed in 
Barbadoes on 21st April. 3 Modyford was instructed, 
among other things, to prohibit the granting of letters of 
marque, and particularly to encourage trade and maintain 
friendly relations with the Spanish dominions. Sir Richard 
Fanshaw had just been appointed to go to Spain and 
negotiate a treaty for wider commercial privileges in the 
Indies, and Charles saw that the daily complaints of 
violence and depredation done by Jamaican ships on the 
King of Spain's subjects were scarcely calculated to in- 
crease the good-will and compliance of the Spanish Court. 
Nor had the attempt in the Indies to force a trade upon 
the Spaniards been brilliantly successful. It was soon 
evident that another course of action was demanded. Sir 
Thomas Modyford seems at first to have been sincerely 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 635. 

2 Ibid., Nos. 656 and 664. Dated 15th and 18th February respectively. 

3 Ibid., No. 739. 

1 20 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

anxious to suppress privateering and conciliate his Spanish 
neighbours. On receiving his commission and instructions 
he immediately prepared letters to the President of San 
Domingo, expressing his fair intentions and requesting the 
co-operation of the Spaniards. 1 Modyford himself arrived 
in. Jamaica on ist June, 2 proclaimed an entire cessation of 
hostilities, 3 and on the 16th sent the " Swallow " ketch to 
Cartagena to acquaint the governor with what he had 
done. On almost the same day letters were forwarded 
from England and from Ambassador Fanshaw in Madrid, 
strictly forbidding all violences in the future against the 
Spanish nation, and ordering Modyford to inflict condign 
punishment on every offender, and make entire restitution 
and satisfaction to the sufferers.^ 

The letters for San Domingo, which had been forwarded 
to Jamaica with Colonel Morgan and thence dispatched to 
Hispaniola before Modyford's arrival, received a favour- 
able answer, but that was about as far as the matter ever 
got. The buccaneers, moreover, the principal grievance of 
the Spaniards, still remained at large. As Thomas Lynch 
wrote on 25th May, " It is not in the power of the governor 
to have or suffer a commerce, nor will any necessity or 
advantage bring private Spaniards to Jamaica, for we and 
they have used too many mutual barbarisms to have a 
sudden correspondence. When the king was restored, the 
Spaniards thought the manners of the English nation 
changed too, and adventured twenty or thirty vessels to 
Jamaica for blacks, but the surprises and irruptions by C. 
Myngs, for whom the governor of San Domingo has up- 
braided the commissioners, made the Spaniards redouble 
their malice, and nothing but an order from Spain can give 

1 CS.P. Colon., 1661-68, Nos. 739 and 744. 

2 Ibid., Nos. 762 and 767. 

3 Ibid., No. 746 ; Beeston's Journal. 

♦ S.P. Spain, vol. 46, f. 192 ; CS.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 753. 
121 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

us admittance or trade." * For a short time, however, a j 
serious effort was made to recall the privateers. Several 
prizes which were brought into Port Royal were seized and 
returned to their owners, while the captors had their com- 
missions taken from them. Such was the experience of I 
one Captain Searles, who in August brought in two 
Spanish vessels, both of which were restored to the : 
Spaniards, and Searles deprived of his rudder and sails as 
security against his making further depredations upon the I 
Dons. 2 In November Captain Morris Williams sent a I 
note to Governor Modyford, offering to come in with a rich \ 
prize of logwood, indigo and silver, if security were given 
that it should be condemned to him for the payment of his 
debts in Jamaica ; and although the governor refused to J 
give any promises the prize was brought in eight days I 
later. The goods were seized and sold in the interest of 
the Spanish owner. 3 Nevertheless, the effects of the pro- 
clamation were not at all encouraging. In the first month 
only three privateers came in with their commissions, and 
Modyford wrote to Secretary Bennet on 30th June that he 
feared the only effect of the proclamation would be to 
drive them to the French in Tortuga. He therefore 
thought it prudent, he continued, to dispense somewhat 
with the strictness of his instructions, " doing by degrees 
and moderation what he had at first resolved to execute 
suddenly and severely ."4 

Tortuga was really the crux of the whole difficulty. 
Back in 1662 Colonel Doyley, in his report to the Lord 
Chancellor after his return to England, had suggested the 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 744; cf. also No. 811, and Lyttleton's 
Report, No. 812. 

2 Ibid. , No. 789. 

3 Ibid., Nos. 859, 964; Beeston's Journal. For disputes over the 
cargo of the Spanish prize captured by Williams, cf. CS.P. Colon., 1661-68, 
Nos. 1 140, 1150, 1177, 1264, 1266. 

« Ibid., No. 767. 

122 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

reduction of Tortuga to English obedience as the only 
effective way of dealing with the buccaneers ; l and Mody- 
ford in 1664 also realized the necessity of this preliminary 
step. 2 The conquest of Tortuga, however, was no longer 
the simple task it might have been four or five years 
earlier. The inhabitants of the island were now almost 
entirely French, and with their companions on the coast 
of Hispaniola had no intention of submitting to English 
dictation. The buccaneers, who had become numerous 
and independent and made Tortuga one of their principal 
retreats, would throw all their strength in the balance 
against an expedition the avowed object of whose coming 
was to make their profession impossible. The colony, 
moreover, received an incalculable accession of strength in 
the arrival of Bertrand d'Ogeron, the governor sent out in 
1665 by the new French West India Company. D'Ogeron 
was one of the most remarkable figures in the West Indies 
in the second half of the seventeenth century. Of broad 
imagination and singular kindness of heart, with an in- 
domitable will and a mind full of resource, he seems to 
have been an ideal man for the task, not only of reducing 
to some semblance of law and order a people who had 
never given obedience to any authority, but also of making 
palatable the regime and exclusive privileges of a private 
trading company. D'Ogeron first established himself at 
Port Margot on the coast of Hispaniola opposite Tortuga 
in the early part of 1665 ; and here the adventurers at 
once gave him to understand that they would never sub- 
mit to any mere company, much less suffer an inter- 
ruption of their trade with the Dutch, who had supplied 
them with necessities at a time when it was not even 
known in France that there were Frenchmen in that region. 

1 Add. MSS., 11,410, pp. 16-25. 

2 CS.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 786; cf. also Add. MSS., 11,410, f. 303:— 
1 Mr Worseley's discourse of the Privateers of Jamaica." 

123 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

D'Ogeron pretended to subscribe to these conditions, 
passed over to Tortuga where he received the submission 
of la Place, and then to Petit-Goave and Leogane, in the 
cul-de-sac of Hispaniola. There he made his head- 
quarters, adopted every means to attract planters and 
engage's, and firmly established his authority. He made 
advances from his own purse without interest to adven- 
turers who wished to settle down to planting, bought two 
ships to facilitate trade between the colony and France, 
and even contrived to have several lots of fifty women 
each brought over from France to be sold and distributed 
as wives amongst the colonists. The settlements soon put 
on a new air of prosperity, and really owed their existence 
as a permanent French colony to the efforts of this new 
governor. 1 It was under the administration of d'Ogeron 
that l'Olonnais, 2 Michel le Basque, and most of the French 
buccaneers flourished, whose exploits are celebrated in 
Exquemelin's history. 

The conquest of Tortuga was not the only measure 
necessary for the effectual suppression of the buccaneers. 
Five or six swift cruisers were also required to pursue and 
bring to bay those corsairs who refused to come in with 
their commissions. 3 Since the Restoration the West 
Indies had been entirely denuded of English men-of-war ; 
while the buccaneers, with the tacit consent or encourage- 
ment of Doyley, had at the same time increased both in 
numbers and boldness. Letters written from Jamaica in 
1664 placed the number scattered abroad in privateering 
at from 1500 to 2000, sailing in fourteen or fifteen ships. 4 
They were desperate men, accustomed to living at sea, 
with no trade but burning and plundering, and unlikely 

1 Charlevoix, op. cit., liv. vii. pp. 57-65. 

2 For the biography of Jean-David Nau, surnamed l'Olonnais, cf. Nouvelle 
Biographie GeneVale, t. xxxviii. p. 654. 

3 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, Nos. 744, 812. 
"» Ibid., Nos. 744, 765, 786, 812. 

124 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

to take orders from any but stronger and faster frigates. 
Nor was this condition of affairs surprising when we con- 
sider that, in the seventeenth century, there flowed from 
Europe to the West Indies adventurers from every class 
of society ; men doubtless often endowed with strong 
personalities, enterprising and intrepid ; but often, too, of 
mediocre intelligence or little education, and usually with- 
out either money or scruples. They included many who 
had revolted from the narrow social laws of European 
countries, and were disinclined to live peaceably within the 
bounds of any organized society. Many, too, had belonged 
to rebellious political factions at home, men of the better 
classes who were banished or who emigrated in order to 
keep their heads upon their shoulders. In France the total 
exhaustion of public and private fortune at the end of the 
religious wars disposed many to seek to recoup themselves 
out of the immense colonial riches of the Spaniards ; 
while the disorders of the Rebellion and the Common- 
wealth in England caused successive emigrations of 
Puritans and Loyalists to the newer England beyond 
the seas. At the close of the Thirty Years' War, too, a 
host of French and English adventurers, who had fattened 
upon Germany and her misfortunes, were left without a 
livelihood, and doubtless many resorted to emigration as 
the sole means of continuing their life of freedom and even 
of licence. Coming to the West Indies these men, so ' 
various in origin and character, hoped soon to acquire 
there the riches which they lost or coveted at home ; and 
their expectations deceived, they often broke in a formal 
and absolute manner the bonds which attached them to their 
fellow humanity. Jamaica especially suffered in this 
respect, for it had been colonized in the first instance by 
a discontented, refractory soldiery, and it was being re- 
cruited largely by transported criminals and vagabonds. 
In contrast with the policy of Spain, who placed the 

125 






BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

most careful restrictions upon the class of emigrants sent 
to her American possessions, England from the very 
beginning used her colonies, and especially the West 
Indian islands, as a dumping-ground for her refuse 
population. Within a short time a regular trade 
sprang up for furnishing the colonies with servile 
labour from the prisons of the mother country. Scots 
captured at the battles of Dunbar and Worcester, 1 
English, French, Irish and Dutch pirates lying in 
the gaols of Dorchester and Plymouth, 2 if "not thought 
fit to be tried for their lives," were shipped to Barbadoes, 
Jamaica, and the other Antilles. In August 1656 the 
Council of State issued an order for the apprehension 
of all lewd and dangerous persons, rogues, vagrants 
and other idlers who had no way of livelihood and 
refused to work, to be transported by contractors to 
the English plantations in America; 3 and in June 1661 
the Council for Foreign Plantations appointed a committee 
to consider the same matter. 4 Complaints were often 
made that children and apprentices were "seduced or 
spirited away" from their parents and masters and con- 
cealed upon ships sailing for the colonies ; and an office of 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1574-1660, pp. 363, 421, 433. 

2 Ibid., pp. 419. 427. 428. 

3 Ibid., p. 447 ; Egerton MSS., 2395, f., 167. 
t C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 101 ; cf. also Nos. 24, 32, 122. Fror 

orders contained in the MSS. of the Marquis of Ormonde issued on petitions 
of convicted prisoners, we find that reprieves were often granted on condition 
of their making arrangements for their own transportation for life to the West 
Indies, without expense to the government. The condemned were permitted 
to leave the gaols in which they were confined and embark immediately, on 
showing that they had agreed with a sea-captain to act as his servant, both 
during the voyage and after their arrival. The captains were obliged to give 
bond for the safe transportation of the criminals, and the latter were also to 
find security that they would not return to the British Isles without license, 
on pain of receiving the punishment from which they had been originally 
reprieved. (Hist. MSS. Comm. Rept X., pt. 5, pp. 34, 42, 85, 94). Cf 
also C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 1268. 

126 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

registry was established to prevent this abuse. 1 In 1664 
Charles granted a licence for five years to Sir James 
Modyford, brother of Sir Thomas, to take all felons con- 
victed in the circuits and at the Old Bailey who were 
afterwards reprieved for transportation to foreign planta- 
tions, and to transmit them to the governor of Jamaica ; 2 
and this practice was continued throughout the whole of 
the buccaneering period. 

Privateering opened a channel by which these dis- 
orderly spirits, impatient of the sober and laborious life of 
the planter, found an employment agreeable to their 
1 tastes. An example had been set by the plundering ex- 
peditions sent out by Fortescue, Brayne and Doyley, and 
> when these naval excursions ceased, the sailors and others 
who had taken part in them fell to robbing on their private 
i account. Sir Charles Lyttleton, we have seen, zealously 
defended and encouraged the freebooters ; and Long, the 
: historian of Jamaica, justified their existence on the 
■ ground that many traders were attracted to the island by 
; the plunder with which Port Royal was so abundantly 
stocked, and that the prosperity of the colony was founded 
upon the great demand for provisions for the outfit of the 
privateers. These effects, however, were but temporary 
and superficial, and did not counterbalance the manifest 
evils of the practice, especially the discouragement to 
planting, and the element of turbulence and unrest ever 
present in the island. Under such conditions Governor 
Modyford found it necessary to temporise with the 
marauders, and perhaps he did so the more readily because 
he felt that they were still needed for the security of the 
colony. A war between England and the States-General 
then seemed imminent, and the governor considered that 
unless he allowed the buccaneers to dispose of their booty 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, Nos. 331, 769-772, 790, 791, 798, 847 1720. 

2 Ibid., No. 866. 

127 



; ; 






BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

when they came in to Port Royal, they might, in event of I 
hostilities breaking out, go to the Dutch at Curacao and I 
other islands, and prey upon Jamaican commerce. On i 
the other hand, if, by adopting a conciliatory attitude, he I 
retained their allegiance, they would offer the handiest I 
and most effective instrument for driving the Dutch them- 
selves out of the Indies. 1 He privately told one captain, 
who brought in a Spanish prize, that he only stopped the 
Admiralty proceedings to "give a good relish to the j 
Spaniard " ; and that although the captor should have satis- 
faction, the governor could not guarantee him his ship. So 
Sir Thomas persuaded some merchants to buy the prize- 
goods and contributed one quarter of the money himself, 
with the understanding that he should receive nothing if the 
Spaniards came to claim their property. 2 A letter from 
Secretary Bennet, on 12th November 1664, confirmed the 
governor in this course ; 3 and on 2nd February 1665, three 
weeks before the declaration of war against Holland, a 
warrant was issued to the Duke of York, High Admiral of 
England, to grant, through the colonial governors and 
vice-admirals, commissions of reprisal upon the ships and 
goods of the Dutch. 4 Modyford at once took advantage 
of this liberty. Some fourteen pirates, who in the 
beginning of February had been tried and condemned to 
death, were pardoned ; and public declaration was made 
that commissions would be granted against the Hollanders. 
Before nightfall two commissions had been taken out, and 
all the rovers were making applications and planning how 
to seize Curacao. 5 Modyford drew up an elaborate design' 
for rooting out at one and the same time the Dutch settle- 
ments and the French buccaneers, and on 20th April he 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, Nos. 839, 843. 

2 Ibid., No. 786. 3 Ibid. , No. 943. 
* Ibid., Nos. 910, 919, 926. s Ibid., Nos. 942, 976. 

6 Ibid., No. 944. 
128 






PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

wrote that Lieutenant-Colonel Morgan had sailed with ten 
ships and some 500 men, chiefly "reformed prisoners," 
resolute fellows, and well armed with fusees and pistols. 1 
Their plan was to fall upon the Dutch fleet trading at St. 
Kitts, capture St. Eustatius, Saba, and perhaps Curasao, 
and on the homeward voyage visit the French settlements 
on Hispaniola and Tortuga. " All this is prepared," he wrote, 
" by the honest privateer, at the old rate of no purchase no 
pay, and it will cost the king nothing considerable, some 
powder and mortar-pieces." On the same day, 20th April, 
Admiral de Ruyter, who had arrived in the Indies with a 
fleet of fourteen sail, attacked the forts and shipping at 
Barbadoes, but suffered considerable damage and retired 
after a few hours. At Montserrat and Nevis, however, he 
was more successful and captured sixteen merchant ships, 
after which he sailed for Virginia and New York. 2 

The buccaneers enrolled in Colonel Morgan's ex- 
pedition proved to be troublesome allies. Before their 
departure from Jamaica most of them mutinied, and 
refused to sail until promised by Morgan that the plunder 
should be equally divided. 3 On 17th July, however, the 
expedition made its rendezvous at Montserrat, and on the 
23rd arrived before St. Eustatius. Two vessels had been 
, lost sight of, a third, with the ironical name of the " Olive 
Branch," had sailed for Virginia, and many stragglers had 
been left behind at Montserrat, so that Morgan could 
muster only 326 men for the assault. There was only one 
,landing-place on the island, with a narrow path accommo- 
dating but two men at a time leading to an eminence 
which was crowned with a fort and 450 Dutchmen. 
Morgan landed his division first, and Colonel Carey 
followed. The enemy, it seems, gave them but one small 

2 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 979. There were really nine ships and 650 
nen. Cf. jM,No. 1088. 

3 Ibid., Nos. 980, 983, 992. 3 Ibid., No. 1088. 

9 129 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

volley and then retreated to the fort. The governor sent 
forward three men to parley, and on receiving a summons 
to surrender, delivered up the fort with eleven large guns 
and considerable ammunition. " It is supposed they were 
drunk or mad," was the comment made upon the rather 
disgraceful defence. 1 During the action Colonel Morgan, 
who was an old man and very corpulent, was overcome 
by the hard marching and extraordinary heat, and died. 
Colonel Carey, who succeeded him in command, was 
anxious to proceed at once to the capture of the Dutch 
forts on Saba, St. Martins and Tortola ; but the buccaneers 
refused to stir until the booty got at St. Eustatius was 
divided — nor were the officers and men able to agree on 
the manner of sharing. The plunder, besides guns and 
ammunition, included about 900 slaves, negro and Indian, 
with a large quantity of live stock and cotton. Meanwhile 
a party of seventy had crossed over to the islan 
of Saba, only four leagues distant, and secured it 
surrender on the same terms as St. Eustatius. As the men 
had now become very mutinous, and on a muster numbered 
scarcely 250, the officers decided that they could not 
reasonably proceed any further and sailed for Jamaica, 
leaving a small garrison on each of the islands. Most of 
the Dutch, about 250 in number, were sent to St. Martins, 
but a few others, with some threescore English, Irish and 
Scotch, took the oath of allegiance and remained. 2 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, Nos. 1073, 1088. 

2 Ibid., No. 1042, I. Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Morgan (not to be 
confused with Colonel Edward Morgan), who was left in command of 
St. Eustatius and Saba, went in April 1666 with a company of buccaneers 
to the assistance of Governor Watts of St. Kitts against the French. In 
the rather shameful defence of the English part of the island Morgan's 
buccaneers were the only English who displayed any courage or discipline, 
and most of them were killed or wounded, Colonel Morgan himself being shoi 
in both legs. (Ibid., Nos. 1204, 1205, 1212, 1220, 1257.) St. Eustatius 
was reconquered by a French force from St. Kitts in the early part of 1667. 
(Ibid., No. 1401.) 

130 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

Encouraged by a letter from the king, 1 Governor 
Modyford continued his exertions against the Dutch. In 
January (?) 1666 two buccaneer captains, Searles and 
Stedman, with two small ships and only eighty men took 
the island of Tobago, near Trinidad, and destroyed every- 
thing they could not carry away. Lord Willoughby, 
governor of Barbadoes, had also fitted out an expedition 
to take the island, but the Jamaicans were three or four 
days before him. The latter were busy with their work of 
pillage, when Willoughby arrived and demanded the 
island in the name of the king ; and the buccaneers con- 
descended to leave the fort and the governor's house stand- 
ing only on condition that Willoughby gave them liberty 
to sell their plunder in Barbadoes. 3 Modyford, meanwhile, 
greatly disappointed by the miscarriage of the design 
against Curacao, called in the aid of the " old privateer," 
Captain Edward Mansfield, and in the autumn of 1665, 
with the hope of sending another armament against the 
island, appointed a rendezvous for the buccaneers in 
Bluefields Bay. 3 

In January 1666 war against England was openly 
declared by France in support of her Dutch allies, and in 
the following month Charles II. sent letters to his governors 
iin the West Indies and the North American colonies, 
apprising them of the war and urging them to attack their 
French neighbours.* The news of the outbreak of 
hostilities did not reach Jamaica until 2nd July, but 
already in December of the previous year warning had 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 1082. 

2 Ibid., No. 1 125. Stedman was later in the year, after the outbreak of 
'war with France, captured by a French frigate off Guadeloupe. With a 
small vessel and only 100 men he found himself becalmed and unable to 
escape, so he boldly boarded the Frenchman in buccaneer fashion and fought 
for two hours, but was finally overcome. {Ibid., No. 1212.) 

3 Ibid., No. 1085 ; Beeston's Journal. Mansfield was the buccaneer whom 
Exquemelin disguises under the name of " Mansvelt." 

4 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, Nos. 1130, 1132-37. 

131 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

been sent out to the West Indies of the coming rupture. 1 
Governor Modyford, therefore, seeing the French very 
much increased in Hispaniola, concluded that it was high 
time to entice the buccaneers from French service and 
bind them to himself by issuing commissions against the 
Spaniards. The French still permitted the freebooters to 
dispose of Spanish prizes in their ports, but the better 
market afforded by Jamaica was always a sufficient 
consideration to attract not only the English buccaneers, 
but the Dutch and French as well. Moreover, the diffi- 
culties of the situation, which Modyford had repeatedly 
enlarged upon in his letters, seem to have been appreciated 
by the authorities in England, for in the spring of 1665, 
following upon Secretary Bennet's letter of 1 2th November 
and shortly after the outbreak of the Dutch war, the Duke 
of Albemarle had written to Modyford in the name of the 
king, giving him permission to use his own discretion in 
granting commissions against the Dons. 2 Modyford was 
convinced that all the circumstances were favourable to 
such a course of action, and on 22nd February assembled 
the Council. A resolution was passed that it was to the 
interest of the island to grant letters of marque against 
the Spaniards^ and a proclamation to this effect was 
published by the governor at Port Royal and Tortuga. 
In the following August Modyford sent home to Bennet, 
now become Lord Arlington, an elaborate defence of his 
actions. " Your Lordship very well knows," wrote Modyford, 
" how great an aversion I had for the privateers while 
at Barbadoes, but after I had put His Majesty's orders for 
restitution in strict execution, I found my error in the 
decay of the forts and wealth of this place, and also the 
affections of this people to His Majesty's service ; yet I 



1 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, Nos. 1129, 1263. 
3 Ibid., Nos. 1 144, 1264. 
3 Ibid., Nos. 1 1 38, 1 144. 
132 



A 



! 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

continued discountenancing and punishing those kind of 
people till your Lordship's of the 12th November 1664 
arrived, commanding a gentle usage of them ; still we 
went to decay, which I represented to the Lord General 
faithfully the 6th of March following, who upon serious 
consideration with His Majesty and the Lord Chancellor, 
by letter of 1st June 1665, gave me latitude to 
grant or not commissions against the Spaniard, as I 
found it for the advantage of His Majesty's service and the 
good of this island. I was glad of this power, yet 
resolved not to use it unless necessity drove me to it ; and 
that too when I saw how poor the fleets returning from 
Statia were, so that vessels were broken up and the men 
disposed of for the coast of Cuba to get a livelihood 
and so be wholly alienated from us. Many stayed at the 
Windward Isles, having not enough to pay their engage- 
ments, and at Tortuga and among the French buccaneers ; 
still I forebore to make use of my power, hoping their 
hardships and great hazards would in time reclaim them 
from that course of life. But about the beginning of 
March last I found that the guards of Port Royal, which 
under Colonel Morgan were 600, had fallen to 138, so I 
assembled the Council to advise how to strengthen that 
most important place with some of the inland forces ; but 
they all agreed that the only way to fill Port Royal with 
men was to grant commissions against the Spaniards, 
which they were very pressing in . . . and looking on our 
weak condition, the chief merchants gone from Port Royal, 
no credit given to privateers for victualling, etc., and 
rumours of war with the French often repeated, I issued 
a declaration of my intentions to grant commissions against 
the Spaniards. Your Lordship cannot imagine what an 
universal change there was on the faces of men and things, 
ships repairing, great resort of workmen and labourers to 
Port Royal, many returning, many debtors released out of 

i33 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

prison, and the ships from the Curasao voyage, not daring 
to come in for fear of creditors, brought in and fitted out 
again, so that the regimental forces at Port Royal are near 
400. Had it not been for that seasonable action, I could 
not have kept my place against the French buccaneers, 
who would have ruined all the seaside plantations at least, 
whereas I now draw from them mainly, and lately David 
Marteen, the best man of Tortuga, that has two frigates at 
sea, has promised to bring in both." l 

In so far as the buccaneers affected the mutual relations 
of England and Spain, it after all could make little differ- 
ence whether commissions were issued in Jamaica or not, 
For the plundering and burning continued, and the 
harassed Spanish-Americans, only too prone to call the 
rogues English of whatever origin they might really be, 
continued to curse and hate the English nation and make 
cruel reprisals whenever possible. Moreover, every ex-. 
pedition into Spanish territory, finding the Spaniards very 
weak and very rich, gave new incentive to such endeavour. 
While Modyford had been standing now on one foot, now 
on the other, uncertain whether to repulse the buccaneers 
or not, secretly anxious to welcome them, but fearing the 
authorities at home, the corsairs themselves had entirely 
ignored him. The privateers whom Modyford had invited 
to rendezvous in Bluefield's Bay in November 1665 had 
chosen Captain Mansfield as their admiral, and in the 
middle of January sailed from the south cays of Cuba for 
Curagao. In the meantime, however, because they had 
been refused provisions which, according to Modyford's 
account, they sought to buy from the Spaniards in Cuba, 
they had marched forty-two miles into the island, and on 
the strength of Portuguese commissions which they held 
against the Spaniards, had plundered and burnt the town 
of Sancti Spiritus, routed a body of 200 horse, carried 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 1264, slightly condensed from the original. 

134 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

some prisoners to the coast, and for their ransom extorted 
300 head of cattle. 1 The rich and easy profits to be got by 
plundering the Spaniards were almost too much for the 
loyalty of the men, and Modyford, hearing of many 
defections from their ranks, had despatched Captain 
Beeston on 10th November to divert them, if possible, from 
Sancti Spiritus, and confirm them in their designs against 
Curacao. 2 The officers of the expedition, indeed, sent to 
the governor a letter expressing their zeal for the enter- 
prise ; but the men still held off, and the fleet, in conse- 
quence, eventually broke up. Two vessels departed for 
Tortuga, and four others, joined by two French rovers, 
sailed under Mansfield to attempt the recapture of 
Providence Island, which, since 164.1, had been garrisoned 
by the Spaniards and used as a penal settlement. 3 Being 
resolved, as Mansfield afterwards told the governor of 
Jamaica, never to see Modyford's face until he had done 
some service to the king, he sailed for Providence with 
about 200 men, 4 and approaching the island in the night 
by an unusual passage among the reefs, landed early in 

'C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, Nos. 1142, 1147. The Governor of Havana 
wrote concerning this same exploit, that on Christmas Eve of 1665 the 
English entered and sacked the town of Cayo in the jurisdiction of Havana, 
and meeting with a vessel having on board twenty-two Spaniards who were 
inhabitants of the town, put them all to the sword, cutting them to pieces with 
hangers. Afterwards they sailed to the town of Bayamo with thirteen vessels 
and 700 men, but altering their plans, went to Sancti Spiritus, landed 300, 
plundered the town, cruelly treated both men and women, burnt the best 
houses, and wrecked and desecrated the church in which they had made their 
quarters. (S.P. Spain, vol. 49, f. 50.) 

Col. Beeston says that Mansfield conducted the raid ; but according to the 
Spanish account to which Duro had access, the leader was Pierre Legrand. 
(Duro, op. cit., v. p. 164). 

2 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 1147; Beeston's Journal. Beeston reports 
that after a six weeks' search for Mansfield and his men he failed to find 
them and returned to Jamaica. 

3 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 1 2 13. 

4 Exquemelin, however, says that he had 500 men. If he attacked 
Providence Island with only 200 he must have received reinforcements later. 

135 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

the morning, and surprised and captured the Spanish 
commander. The garrison of about 200 yielded up the 
fort on the promise that they would be carried to the 
mainland. Twenty-seven pieces of ordnance were taken, 
many of which, it is said, bore the arms of Queen 
Elizabeth engraved upon them. Mansfield left thirty-five 
men under command of a Captain Hattsell to hold the 
island, and sailed with his prisoners for Central America. 
After cruising along the shores of the mainland, he 
ascended the San Juan River and entered and sacked 
Granada, the capital of Nicaragua. From Granada the 
buccaneers turned south into Costa Rica, burning planta- 
tions, breaking the images in the churches, ham-stringing 
cows and mules> cutting down the fruit trees, and in 
general destroying everything they found. The Spanish 
governor had only thirty-six soldiers at his disposal and 
scarcely any firearms ; but he gathered the inhabitants and 
some Indians, blocked the roads, laid ambuscades, and did 
all that his pitiful means permitted to hinder the progress 
of the invaders. The freebooters had designed to visit 
Cartago, the chief city of the province, and plunder it as 
they had plundered Granada. They penetrated only as 
far as Turrialva, however, whence weary and footsore from 
their struggle through the Cordillera, and harassed by the 
Spaniards, they retired through the province of Veragua in 
military order to their ships. 1 On 1 2th June the buccaneers, 
laden with booty, sailed into Port Royal. There was at 
that moment no declared war between England and 

1 Duro, op. cit., v. p. 167 ; S. P. Spain, vol. 49, f. 50. The accounts that 
have come down to us of this expedition are obscure and contradictory. 
Modyford writes of the exploit merely that " they landed 600 men at Cape 
Blanco, in the kingdom of Veragua, and marched 90 miles into that country 
to surprise its chief city, Cartago ; but understanding that the inhabitants had 
carried away their wealth, returned to their ships without being challenged." 
(C-S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 1213.) According to Exquemelin the original 
goal of the buccaneers was the town of Nata, north of Panama. The Spanish 
accounts make the numbers of the invaders much greater, from 800 to 1200. 

136 






PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

Spain. Yet the governor, probably because he believed 
Mansfield to be justified, ex post facto, by the issue of 
commissions against the Spaniards in the previous 
February, did no more than mildly reprove him for acting 
without his orders ; and " considering its good situation 
for favouring any design on the rich main," he accepted 
the tender of the island in behalf of the king. He 
despatched Major Samuel Smith, who had been one of 
Mansfield's party, with a few soldiers to reinforce the 
English garrison ; x and on ioth November the Council 
in England set the stamp of their approval upon his 
actions by issuing a commission to his brother, Sir 
James Modyford, to be lieutenant-governor of the new 
acquisition. 2 

In August 1665, only two months before the departure 
of Mansfield from Jamaica, there had returned to Port 
Royal from a raid in the same region three privateer 
captains named Morris, Jackman and Morgan. 3 These 
men, with their followers, doubtless helped to swell the 
ranks of Mansfield's buccaneers, and it was probably their 
report of the wealth of Central America which induced 
Mansfield to emulate their performance. In the previous 
January these three captains, still pretending to sail under 
commissions from Lord Windsor, had ascended the river 

'C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 1263. 

1 Ibid.) Nos. 1309, 1349. The capture of Providence Island was Mans- 
field's last exploit. According to a deposition found among the Colonial 
papers, he and his ship were later captured by the Spaniards and carried 
to Havana where the old buccaneer was put in irons and soon after ex- 
ecuted. Ibid., No. 1827.) Exquemelin says that Mansfield, having been 
refused sufficient aid by Modyford for the defence of Providence, went to seek 
assistance at Tortuga, when "death suddenly surprised him and put a period 
to his wicked life." 

3 Exquemelin refers to a voyage of Henry Morgan to Campeache at about 
this time, and says that he afterwards accompanied Mansfield as his "vice- 
admiral." There were at least three Morgans then in the West Indies, but 
Colonel Edward and Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas were at this time doubtless 
busy preparing the armament against Curacao. 

137 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Tabasco, in the province of Campeache, with 107 men, and 
guided by Indians made a detour of 300 miles, according 
to their account, to Villa de Mosa, 1 which they took and 
plundered. When they returned to the mouth of the 
river, they found that their ships had been seized by 
Spaniards, who, on their approach, attacked them 300 
strong. The Spaniards, softened by the heat and indolent 
life of the tropics, were no match for one-third their 
number of desperadoes, and the buccaneers beat them off 
without the loss of a man. The freebooters then fitted up 
two barques and four canoes, sailed to Rio Garta and 
stormed the place with only thirty men ; crossed the Gulf 
of Honduras to the Island of Roatan to rest and obtain 
fresh water, and then captured and plundered the port of 
Truxillo. Down the Mosquito Coast they passed like a 
devouring flame, consuming all in their path. Anchoring 
in Monkey Bay, they ascended the San Juan River in 
canoes for a distance of 100 miles to Lake Nicaragua. 
The basin into which they entered they described as a 
veritable paradise, the air cool and wholesome, the shores 
of the lake full of green pastures and broad savannahs 
dotted with horses and cattle, and round about all a 
coronal of azure mountains. Hiding by day among the 
numerous islands and rowing all night, on the fifth night 
they landed near the city of Granada, just a year before 
Mansfield's visit to the place. The buccaneers marche 
unobserved to the central square of the city, overturne 
eighteen cannon mounted there, seized the magazine, and 

1 "Villa de Mosa is a small Town standing on the Starboard side of the 
River . . . inhabited chiefly by Indians, with some Spaniards. . . . Thus far 
Ships come to bring Goods, especially European Commodities. . . . They arrive 
here in November or December, and stay till June or July, selling their Com- 
modities, and then load chiefly with Cacao and some Sylvester. All the 
Merchants and petty Traders of the country Towns come thither about 
Christmas to TrafHck, which makes this Town the chiefest in all these Parts, 
Campeache excepted." — Dampier, ed. 1906, ii. p. 206. The town was 
twelve leagues from the river's mouth. 

138 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

took and imprisoned in the cathedral 300 of the citizens. 
They plundered for sixteen hours, then released their 
prisoners, and taking the precaution to scuttle all the 
boats, made their way back to the sea coast. The town 
was large and pleasant, containing seven churches besides 
several colleges and monasteries, and most of the buildings 
were constructed of stone. About 1000 Indians, driven to 
rebellion by the cruelty and oppression of the Spaniards, 
accompanied the marauders and would have massacred the 
prisoners, especially the religious, had they not been told 
that the English had no intentions of retaining their 
conquest. The news of the exploit produced a lively 
impression in Jamaica, and the governor suggested Central 
America as the "properest place" for an attack from 
England on the Spanish Indies. 1 

Providence Island was now in the hands of an English 
garrison, and the Spaniards were not slow to realise that 
the possession of this outpost by the buccaneers might 
be but the first step to larger conquests on the mainland. 
The President of Panama, Don Juan Perez de Guzman, 
immediately took steps to recover the island. He trans- 
ferred himself to Porto Bello, embargoed an English 
ship of thirty guns, the " Concord," lying at anchor there 
with licence to trade in negroes, manned it with 350 
Spaniards under command of Jose Sanchez Jimenez, 
and sent it to Cartagena. The governor of Cartagena 
contributed several small vessels and a hundred or more 
men to the enterprise, and on 10th August 1666 the 
united Spanish fleet appeared off the shores of Providence. 
On the refusal of Major Smith to surrender, the Spaniards 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 1 142; Beeston's Journal, 20th August 1665. 
The viceroy of New Spain, in a letter of 28th March 1665, reports the coming, 
in February, of 150 English in three ships to Tabasco, but gives the name of 
the plundered town as Santa Marta de la Vitoria. According to his story, 
the buccaneers seized royal treasure amounting to 50,000 pieces of eight, 
besides ammunition and slaves. (S. P. Spain, vol. 49, f. 122.) 

139 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

landed, and on 15th August, after a three days' siege, 
forced the handful of buccaneers, only sixty or seventy 
in number, to capitulate. Some of the English defenders 
later deposed before Governor Modyford that the 
Spaniards had agreed to let them depart in a barque 
for Jamaica. However this may be, when the English 
came to lay down their arms they were made prisoners 
by the Spaniards, carried to Porto Bello, and all except 
Sir Thomas Whetstone, Major Smith and Captain 
Stanley, the three English captains, submitted to the 
most inhuman cruelties. Thirty-three were chained to 
the ground in a dungeon 12 feet by 10. They were 
forced to work in the water from five in the morning 
till seven at night, and at such a rate that the Spaniards 
themselves confessed they made one of them do more 
work than any three negroes ; yet when weak for want 
of victuals and sleep, they were knocked down and 
beaten with cudgels so that four or five died. "Having 
no clothes, their backs were blistered with the sun, 
their heads scorched, their necks, shoulders and hands 
raw with carrying stones and mortar, their feet chopped 
and their legs bruised and battered with the irons, and 
their corpses were noisome to one another." The three 
English captains were carried to Panama, and there 
cast into a dungeon and bound in irons for seventeen 
months. 1 

On 8th January 1664 Sir Richard Fanshaw, formerly 
ambassador to Portugal, had arrived in Madrid from 
England to negotiate a treaty of commerce with Spain, 
and if possible to patch up a peace between the Spanish 
and Portuguese crowns. He had renewed the old 
demand for a free commerce in the Indies; and the 
negotiations had dragged through the years of 1664 and 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, Nos. 1826, 1827, 1851; Exquemelin, ed. 1684, 
Part II. pp. 65-74. 

140 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

1665, hampered and crossed by the factions in the 
Spanish court, the hostile machinations of the Dutch 
resident in Madrid, and the constant rumours of cruelties 
and desolations by the freebooters in America. 1 The 
Spanish Government insisted that by sole virtue of the 
articles of 1630 there was peace on both sides of the 
" Line," and that the violences of the buccaneers in the 
West Indies, and even the presence of English colonists 
there, was a breach of the articles. In this fashion they 
endeavoured to reduce Fanshaw to the position of a 
suppliant for favours which they might only out of their 
grace and generosity concede. It was a favourite trick 
of Spanish diplomacy, which had been worked many times 
before. The English ambassador was, in consequence, 
compelled strenuously to deny the existence of any 
peace in America, although he realised how ambiguous 
his position had been rendered by the original orders of 
Charles II. to Modyford in 1664. 2 After the death of 
Philip IV. in 1665, negotiations were renewed with the 
encouragement of the Queen Regent, and on 17th 
December provisional articles were signed by Fanshaw 
and the Duke de Medina de los Torres and sent to 
England for ratification. 3 Fanshaw died shortly after, 
and Lord Sandwich, his successor, finally succeeded in 
concluding a treaty on 23rd May 1667.4 The provisions 
of the treaty extended to places "where hitherto trade 
and commerce hath been accustomed," and the only 
privileges obtained in America were those which had 
been granted to the Low Countries by the Treaty of 
Munster. On 21st July of the same year a general 
peace was concluded at Breda between England, Holland 
and France. 

1 S.P. Spain, vols. 46-49. Correspondence of Sir Richard Fanshaw. 

2 Ibid., vol. 46, f. 192. 3 Ibid. , vol. 49, f. 212. 
* Ibid., vol. 52, f. 138; Record Office, Treaties, etc., 466. 

141 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

It was in the very midst of Lord Sandwich's negotia- 
tions that Modyford had, as Beeston expresses it in his 
Journal, declared war against the Spaniards by the 
re-issue of privateering commissions. He had done it 
all in his own name, however, so that the king might 
disavow him should the exigencies of diplomacy demand 
it. 1 Moreover, at this same time, in the middle of 1666, 
Albemarle was writing to Modyford that notwithstanding 
the negotiations, in which, as he said, the West Indies 
were not at all concerned, the governor might still employ 
the privateers as formerly, if it be for the benefit of 
English interests in the Indies. 2 The news of the 
general peace reached Jamaica late in 1667 ; yet Modyford 
did not change his policy. It is true that in February 
Secretary Lord Arlington had sent directions to restrain 
the buccaneers from further acts of violence against the 
Spaniards ; 3 but Modyford drew his own conclusions 
from the contradictory orders received from England, 
and was conscious, perhaps, that he was only reflecting 
the general policy of the home government when he 
wrote to Arlington : — " Truly it must be very imprudent 
to run the hazard of this place, for obtaining a correspond- 
ence which could not but by orders from Madrid be 
had. . . . The Spaniards look on us as intruders and 
trespassers, wheresoever they find us in the Indies, and 
use us accordingly ; and were it in their power, as it is 
fixed in their wills, would soon turn us out of all our 
plantations ; and is it reasonable that we should quietly let 
them grow upon us until they are able to do it ? It must be 
force alone that can cut in sunder that unneighbourly maxim 
of their government to deny all access to strangers." 4 

'C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 1276. 

2 Ibid., No. 1264. 3 Ibid., No. 1537. 

* Ibid., No. 1264. 

There was probably some disagreement in the Council in England over 
the policy to be pursued toward the buccaneers. On 21st August 1666 

142 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

These words were very soon translated into action, for 
in June 1668 Henry Morgan, with a fleet of nine or ten 
ships and between 400 and 500 men, took and sacked 
Porto Bello, one of the strongest cities of Spanish 
America, and the emporium for most of the European 
trade of the South American continent. Henry Morgan 
was a nephew of the Colonel Edward Morgan who died 
in the assault of St. Eustatius. He is said to have been 
kidnapped at Bristol while he was a mere lad and sold 
as a servant in Barbadoes, whence, on the expiration of 
his time, he found his way to Jamaica. There he joined 
the buccaneers and soon rose to be captain of a ship. 
It was probably he who took part in the expedition with 
Morris and Jackman to Campeache and Central America. 
He afterwards joined the Curacao armament of Mansfield 
and was with the latter when he seized the island of 
Providence. After Mansfield's disappearance Morgan 
seems to have taken his place as the foremost buccaneer 
leader in Jamaica, and during the next twenty years he was 

Modyford wrote to Albemarle : " Sir James Modyford will present his Grace 
with a copy of some orders made at Oxford, in behalf of some Spaniards, 
with Lord Arlington's letter thereon ; in which are such strong inculcations 
of continuing friendship with the Spaniards here, that he doubts he shall be 
highly discanted on by some persons for granting commissions against them ; 
must beg his Grace to bring him off, or at least that the necessity of this pro- 
ceeding may be taken into serious debate and then doubts not but true 
English judges will confirm what he has done." On the other hand he 
writes to Arlington on 30th July 1667 : " Had my abilities suited so well with 
my wishes as the latter did with your Lordship's, the privateers' attempts had 
been only practised on the Dutch and French, and the Spaniards free of them, 
but I had no money to pay them nor frigates to force them ; the former they 
could not get from our declared enemies, nothing could they expect but blows 
from them, and (as they have often repeated to me) will that pay for new sails 
and rigging? . . . (but) will, suitable to your Lordship's directions, as far as 
I am able, restrain them from further acts of violence towards the Spaniards, 
unless provoked by new insolences." Yet in the following December the 
governor tells Albemarle that he has not altered his posture, nor does he 
intend until further orders. It seems clear that Arlington and Albemarle re- 
presented two opposite sets of opinion in the Council. 

143 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

one of the most considerable men in the colony. He was 
but thirty-three years old when he led the expedition 
against Porto Bello. 1 

In the beginning of 1668 Sir Thomas Modyford, 
having had "frequent and strong advice" that the 
Spaniards were planning an invasion of Jamaica, had 
commissioned Henry Morgan to draw together the 
English privateers and take some Spanish prisoners in 
order to find out if these rumours were true. The 
buccaneers, according to Morgan's own report to the 
governor, were driven to the south cays of Cuba, where 
being in want of victuals and " like to starve," and meeting 
some Frenchmen in a similar plight, they put their men 
ashore to forage. They found all the cattle driven up 
into the country, however, and the inhabitants fled. So 
the freebooters marched twenty leagues to Puerto Principe 
on the north side of the island, and after a short encounter, 
in which the Spanish governor was killed, possessed 
themselves of the place. Nothing of value escaped the 
rapacity of the invaders, who resorted to the extremes of 
torture to draw from their prisoners confessions of hidden 
wealth. On the entreaty of the Spaniards they forebore 
to fire the town, and for a ransom of 1000 head of cattle 
released all the prisoners ; but they compelled the 
Spaniards to salt the beef and carry it to the ships. 2 
Morgan reported, with what degree of truth we have no 
means of judging, that seventy men had been impressed in 
Puerto Principe to go against Jamaica, and that a similar 

1 On 2 1st December 1671, Morgan in a deposition before the Council of 
Jamaica gave his age as thirty-six years. (C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 705.) 

2 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 1838; Exquemelin, ed. 1684, Part II., 
pp. 79-88. According to Exquemelin the first design of the freebooters had 
been to cross the island of Cuba in its narrowest part and fall upon Havana. 
But on receiving advice that the governor had taken measures to defend 
and provision the city, they changed their minds and marched to Puerto 
Principe. 

144 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

levy had been made throughout the island. Considerable 
forces, moreover, were expected from the mainland to 
rendezvous at Havana and St. Jago, with the final object 
of invading the English colony. 

On returning to the ships from the sack of Puerto 
Principe, Morgan unfolded to his men his scheme of 
striking at the very heart of Spanish power in the Indies 
by capturing Porto Bello. The Frenchmen among his 
followers, it seems, wholly refused to join him in this 
larger design, full of danger as it was ; so Morgan sailed 
away with only the English freebooters, some 400 in 
number, for the coasts of Darien. Exquemelin has left us 
a narrative of this exploit which is more circumstantial 
than any other we possess, and agrees so closely with 
what we know from other sources that we must accept 
the author's statement that he was an eye-witness. He 
relates the whole story, moreover, in so entertaining and 
picturesque a manner that he deserves quotation. 

" Captain Morgan," he says, " who knew very well all 
the avenues of this city, as also all the neighbouring coasts, 
arrived in the dusk of the evening at the place called 
Puerto de Naos, distant ten leagues towards the west of 
Porto Bello. 1 Being come unto this place, they mounted 
the river in their ships, as far as another harbour called 
Puerto Pontin, where they came to anchor. Here they 
put themselves immediately into boats and canoes, leaving 
in the ships only a few men to keep them and conduct 

1 The city of Porto Bello with its large commodious harbour afforded a 
good anchorage and shelter for the annual treasure galleons. The narrow 
entrance was secured by the two forts mentioned in the narrative, the St. Jago 
on the left entering the harbour, and the San Felipe on the right ; and within 
the port was a third called the San Miguel. The town lay at the bottom of 
the harbour bending round the shore like a half-moon. It was built on low 
swampy ground and had no walls or defences on the land side. {Cf. the 
descriptions of Wafer and Gage.) The garrison at this time probably did not 
exceed 300 men. 

10 145 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

them the next day unto the port. About midnight they 
came to a certain place called Estera longa Lemos, where 
they all went on shore, and marched by land to the first 
posts of the city. They had in their company a certain 
Englishman, who had been formerly a prisoner in those 
parts, and who now served them for a guide. Unto him, 
and three or four more, they gave commission to take the 
sentry, if possible, or to kill him upon the place. But they 
laid hands on him and apprehended him with such cunning 
as he had no time to give warning with his musket, or 
make any other noise. Thus they brought him, with his 
hands bound, unto Captain Morgan, who asked him*: 
' How things went in the city, and what forces they had ' ; 
with many other circumstances, which he was desirous to 
know. After every question they made him a thousand 
menaces to kill him, in case he declared not the truth. 
Thus they began to advance towards the city, carrying 
always the said sentry bound before them. Having 
marched about one quarter of a league, they came to the 
castle that is nigh unto the city, which presently they 
closely surrounded, so that no person could get either in 
or out of the said fortress. 

" Being thus posted under the walls of the castle, 
Captain Morgan commanded the sentry, whom they had 
taken prisoner, to speak to those that were within, charging 
them to surrender, and deliver themselves up to his discre- 
tion ; otherwise they should be all cut in pieces, without 
giving quarter to any one. But they would hearken to 
none of these threats, beginning instantly to fire ; which 
gave notice unto the city, and this was suddenly alarmed. 
Yet, notwithstanding, although the Governor and soldiers 
of the said castle made as great resistance as could be 
performed, they were constrained to surrender unto the 
Pirates. These no sooner had taken the castle, than they 

resolved to be as good as their words, in putting the 

146 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

Spaniards to the sword, thereby to strike a terror into 
the rest of the city. Hereupon, having shut up all the 
soldiers and officers as prisoners into one room, they in- 
stantly set fire to the powder (whereof they found great 
quantity), and blew up the whole castle into the air, with 
all the Spaniards that were within. This being done, they 
pursued the course of their victory, falling upon the city, 
which as yet was not in order to receive them. Many of 
the inhabitants cast their precious jewels and moneys into 
wells and cisterns or hid them in other places underground, 
to excuse, as much as were possible, their being totally 
robbed. One party of the Pirates being assigned to this 
purpose, ran immediately to the cloisters, and took as 
many religious men and women as they could find. The 
Governor of the city not being able to rally the citizens, 
through the huge confusion of the town, retired unto one 
of the castles remaining, and from thence began to fire 
incessantly at the Pirates. But these were not in the least 
negligent either to assault him or defend themselves with 
all the courage imaginable. Thus it was observed that, 
amidst the horror of the assault, they made very few shot 
in vain. For aiming with great dexterity at the mouths 
of the guns, the Spaniards were certain to lose one or two 
men every time they charged each gun anew. 

"The assault of this castle where the Governor was 
continued very furious on both sides, from break of day 
until noon. Yea, about this time of the day the case was 
very dubious which party should conquer or be conquered. 
At last the Pirates, perceiving they had lost many men and 
as yet advanced but little towards the gaining either this 
or the other castles remaining, thought to make use of fire- 
balls, which they threw with their hands, designing, it 
possible, to burn the doors of the castle. But going about 
to put this in execution, the Spaniards from the walls let 
fall great quantity of stones and earthen pots full of powder 

i47 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

and other combustible matter, which forced them to desist 
from that attempt. Captain Morgan, seeing this generous 
defence made by the Spaniards, began to despair of the 
whole success of the enterprise. Hereupon many faint 
and calm meditations came into his mind ; neither could 
he determine which way to turn himself in that straitness 
of affairs. Being involved in these thoughts, he was 
suddenly animated to continue the assault, by seeing the 
English colours put forth at one of the lesser castles, then 
entered by his men, of whom he presently after spied a 
troop that came to meet him proclaiming victory with loud 
shouts of joy. This instantly put him upon new resolu- 
tions of making new efforts to take the rest of the castles 
that stood out against him ; especially seeing the chief 
citizens were fled unto them, and had conveyed thither 
great part of their riches, with all the plate belonging to 
the churches, and other things dedicated to divine service. 

" To this effect, therefore, he ordered ten or twelve i 
ladders to be made, in all possible haste, so broad that 
three or four men at once might ascend by them. These 
being finished, he commanded all the religious men and 
women whom he had taken prisoners to fix them against 
the walls of the castle. Thus much he had beforehand 
threatened the Governor to perform, in case he delivered 
not the castle. But his answer was : ' He would never 
surrender himself alive.' Captain Morgan was much per- 
suaded that the Governor would not employ his utmost 
forces, seeing religious women and ecclesiastical persons 
exposed in the front of the soldiers to the greatest dangers. 
Thus the ladders, as I have said, were put into the hands 
of religious persons of both sexes ; and these were forced, 
at the head of the companies, to raise and apply them to 
the walls. But Captain Morgan was deceived in his judg- 
ment of this design. For the Governor, who acted like a 

brave and courageous soldier, refused not, in performance 

148 






PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

of his duty, to use his utmost endeavours to destroy who- 
soever came near the walls. The religious men and women 
ceased not to cry unto him and beg of him by all the 
Saints of Heaven he would deliver the castle, and hereby 
spare both his and their own lives. But nothing could 
prevail with the obstinacy and fierceness that had possessed 
the Governor's mind. Thus many of the religious men 
and nuns were killed before they could fix the ladders. 
Which at last being done, though with great loss of the 
said religious people, the Pirates mounted them in great 
numbers, and with no less valour ; having fireballs in their 
hands, and earthen pots full of powder. All which things, 
being now at the top of the walls, they kindled and cast in 
among the Spaniards. 

" This effort of the Pirates was very great, insomuch as 
the Spaniards could no longer resist nor defend the castle, 
which was now entered. Hereupon they all threw down 
their arms, and craved quarter for their lives. Only the 
: Governor of the city would admit or crave no mercy ; but 
•.rather killed many of the Pirates with his own hands, and 
, not a few of his own soldiers, because they did not stand 
to their arms. And although the Pirates asked him if he 
l would have quarter, yet he constantly answered: 'By no 
! means ; I had rather die as a valiant soldier, than be 
hanged as a coward.' They endeavoured as much as they 
could to take him prisoner. But he defended himself so 
I obstinately that they were forced to kill him ; notwith- 
standing all the cries and tears of his own wife and 
daughter, who begged of him upon their knees he would 
demand quarter and save his life. When the Pirates had 
possessed themselves of the castle, which was about night, 
they enclosed therein all the prisoners they had taken, 
placing the women and men by themselves, with some 
guards upon them. All the wounded were put into a 

certain apartment by itself, to the intent their own com- 

149 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

plaints might be the cure of their diseases ; for no other 
was afforded them. 

"This being done, they fell to eating and drinking 
after their usual manner; that is to say, committing in 
both these things all manner of debauchery and excess. 
. . . After such manner they delivered themselves up 
unto all sort of debauchery, that if there had been found 
only fifty courageous men, they might easily have re-taken 
the city, and killed all the Pirates. The next day, having 
plundered all they could find, they began to examine some 
of the prisoners (who had been persuaded by their com- 
panions to say they were the richest of the town), charging 
them severely to discover where they had hidden their 
riches and goods. But not being able to extort anything 
out of them, as they were not the right persons that 
possessed any wealth, they at last resolved to torture 
them. This they [performed with such cruelty that many 
of them died upon the rack, or presently after. Soon 
after, the President of Panama had news brought him of 
the pillage and ruin of Porto Bello. This intelligence 
caused him to employ all his care and industry to raise 
forces, with design to pursue and cast out the Pirates 
from thence. But these cared little for what extraordinary 
means the President used, as having their ships nigh at 
hand, and being determined to set fire unto the city and 
retreat. They had now been at Porto Bello fifteen days, 
in which space of time they had lost many of their men, 
both by the unhealthiness of the country and the ex- 
travagant debaucheries they had committed. 1 

" Hereupon they prepared for a departure, carrying on 

1 This statement is confirmed by one of the captains serving under Morgan, 
who in his account of the expedition says : " After remaining some days . . . 
sickness broke out among the troops, of which we lost half by sickness and 
fighting." (C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 1.) And in "The Present State of 
Jamaica, 1683," we read that Morgan brought to the island the plague "that 
killed my Lady Modyford and others." 

150 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

board their ships all the pillage they had gotten. But, 
before all, they provided the fleet with sufficient victuals 
for the voyage. While these things were getting ready, 
Captain Morgan sent an injunction unto the prisoners, 
that they should pay him a ransom for the city, or else he 
would by fire consume it to ashes, and blow up all the 
castles into the air. Withal, he commanded them to send 
speedily two persons to seek and procure the sum he 
demanded, which amounted to one hundred thousand 
pieces of eight. Unto this effect, two men were sent to 
the President of Panama, who gave him an account of all 
these tragedies. The President, having now a body of 
men in readiness, set forth immediately towards Porto 
Bello, to encounter the Pirates before their retreat. But 
these people, hearing of his coming, instead of flying away, 
went out to meet him at a narrow passage through which 
of necessity he ought to pass. Here they placed an 
hundred men very well armed; the which, at the first 
encounter, put to flight a good party of those of Panama. 
This accident obliged the President to retire for that time, 
as not being yet in a posture of strength to proceed any 
farther. Presently after this rencounter he sent a message 
unto Captain Morgan to tell him : ' That in case he de- 

I parted not suddenly with all his forces from Porto Bello, 
he ought to expect no quarter for himself nor his com- 
panions, when he should take them, as he hoped soon to 
do.' Captain Morgan, who feared not his threats knowing 
he had a secure retreat in his ships which were nigh at 
hand, made him answer : ' He would not deliver the castles, 
before he had received the contribution money he had 
demanded. Which in case it were not paid down, he 
would certainly burn the whole city, and then leave it, 
demolishing beforehand the castles and killing the 
prisoners.' 

" The Governor of Panama perceived by this answer 

151 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

that no means would serve to mollify the hearts of the 
Pirates, nor reduce them to reason. Hereupon he deter- 
mined to leave them ; as also those of the city, whom he 
came to relieve, involved in the difficulties of making the 
best agreement they could with their enemies. 1 Thus, in 
a few days more, the miserable citizens gathered the con- 
tribution wherein they were fined, and brought the entire 
sum of one hundred thousand pieces of eight unto the 
Pirates, for a ransom of the cruel captivity they were 
fallen into. But the President of Panama, by these trans- 
actions, was brought into an extreme admiration, con- 
sidering that four hundred men had been able to take such 
a great city, with so many strong castles ; especially seeing 
they had no pieces of cannon, nor other great guns, where- 
with to raise batteries against them. And what was 
more, knowing that the citizens of Porto Bello had always 
great repute of being good soldiers themselves, and who 
had never wanted courage in their own defence. This 
astonishment was so great, that it occasioned him, for to 
be satisfied therein, to send a messenger unto Captain 
Morgan, desiring him to send him some small pattern of 
those arms wherewith he had taken with such violence 
so great a city. Captain Morgan received this messenger 
very kindly, and treated him with great civility. Which 
being done, he gave him a pistol and a few small bullets 
of lead, to carry back unto the President, his Master, 
telling him withal : ' He desired him to accept that slender 
pattern of the arms wherewith he had taken Porto Bello 
and keep them for a twelvemonth ; after which time he 
promised to come to Panama and fetch them away.' The 
governor of Panama returned the present very soon unto 
Captain Morgan, giving him thanks for the favour of lend- 
ing him such weapons as he needed not, and withal sent 

1 Morgan reported, however, that the ransom was offered and paid by the 
President of Panama. (C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 1838.) 

152 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

him a ring of gold, with this message : c That he desired 
him not to give himself the labour of coming to Panama, 
as he had done to Porto Bello ; for he did certify unto 
him, he should not speed so well here as he had done 
there.' 

"After these transactions, Captain Morgan (having 
provided his fleet with all necessaries, and taken with 
him the best guns of the castles, nailing the rest which he 
could not carry away) set sail from Porto Bello with all 
his ships. With these he arrived in a few days unto the 
Island of Cuba, where he sought out a place wherein with 
all quiet and repose he might make the dividend of the 
spoil they had gotten. They found in ready money two 
hundred and fifty thousand pieces of eight, besides all 
other merchandises, as cloth, linen, silks and other goods. 
With this rich purchase they sailed again from thence 
unto their common place of rendezvous, Jamaica. Being 
arrived, they passed here some time in all sorts of vices 
and debauchery, according to their common manner of 
doing, spending with huge prodigality what others had 
gained with no small labour and toil." l 

1 Exquemelin, ed. 1684, Part II. pp. 89-103. 

The cruelties of the buccaneers at Porto Bello are confirmed by a letter 
from John Style to the Secretary of State, complaining of the disorder and 
injustice reigning in Jamaica. He writes : " It is a common thing among 
the privateers, besides burning with matches and such like slight torments, to 
cut a man in pieces, first some flesh, then a hand, an arm, a leg, sometimes 
tying a cord about his head and with a stick twisting it till the eyes shot out, 
which is called 'woolding.' Before taking Puerto Bello, thus some were 
used, because they refused to discover a way into the town which was not, 
and many in the town because they would not discover wealth they knew 
not of. A woman there was by some set bare upon a baking stone and 
roasted because she did not confess of money which she had only in their 
conceit ; this he heard some declare with boasting, and one that was sick 
confess with sorrow." (C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 138.) 

Modyford writes concerning the booty got at Porto Bello, that the business 
cleared each privateer £60, and " to himself they gave only ^20 for their 
commission, which never exceeded ,£300." (C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 
103.) But it is very probable that the buccaneers did not return a full account 

153 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Morgan and his officers, on their return to Jamaica in 
the middle of August, made an official report which places 
their conduct in a peculiarly mild and charitable light, 1 and 
forms a sharp contrast to the account left us by Exquemelin. 
According to Morgan the town and castles were restored 
" in as good condition as they found them," and the people 
were so well treated that " several ladies of great quality 
and other prisoners" who were offered "their liberty to 
go to the President's camp, refused, saying they were now 
prisoners to a person of quality, who was more tender of 
their honours than they doubted to find in the president's 
camp, and so voluntarily continued with them till the 
surrender of the town and castles." This scarcely tallies 
with what we know of the manners of the freebooters, and 
Exquemelin's evidence is probably nearer the truth. When 
Morgan returned to Jamaica Modyford at first received 
him somewhat doubtfully, for Morgan's commission, as 
the Governor told him, was only against ships, and the 
Governor was not at all sure how the exploit would be 
taken in England. Morgan, however, had reported that 
at Porto Bello, as well as in Cuba, levies were being made 
for an attack upon Jamaica, and Modyford laid great stress 
upon this point when he forwarded the buccaneer's nar- 
rative to the Duke of Albemarle. 

The sack of Porto Bello was nothing less than an act 
of open war against Spain, and Modyford, now that he 
had taken the decisive step, was not satisfied with half 
measures. Before the end of October 1668 the whole 
fleet of privateers, ten sail and 800 men, had gone out 
again under Morgan to cruise on the coasts of Caracas, 
while Captain Dempster with several other vessels and 300 

of the booty to the governor, for it was a common complaint that they 
plundered their prizes and hid the spoil in holes and creeks along the coast 
so as to cheat the government of its tenths and fifteenths levied on all con- 
demned prize-goods. 

1 CS.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 1838. 

154 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

followers lay before Havana and along the shores of 
Campeache. 1 Modyford had written home repeatedly 
that if the king wished him to exercise any adequate 
control over the buccaneers, he must send from England 
two or three nimble fifth-rate frigates to command their 
obedience and protect the island from hostile attacks. 
Charles in reply to these letters sent out the " Oxford," a 
frigate of thirty-four guns, which arrived at Port Royal on 
14th October. According to Beeston's Journal, it brought 
instructions countenancing the war, and empowering the 
governor to commission whatever persons he thought good 
to be partners with His Majesty in the plunder, "they 
finding victuals, wear and tear." 2 The frigate was 
immediately provisioned for a several months' cruise, and 
sent under command of Captain Edward Collier to join 
Morgan's fleet as a private ship-of-war. Morgan had 
appointed the Isle la Vache, or Cow Island, on the south 
side of Hispaniola, as the rendezvous for the privateers ; 
and thither flocked great numbers, both English and 
French, for the name of Morgan was, by his exploit at 
Porto Bello, rendered famous in all the neighbouring 
islands. Here, too, arrived the " Oxford " in December. 
Among the French privateers were two men-of-war, one of 
which, the " Cour Volant " of La Rochelle, commanded by 
M. la Vivon, was seized by Captain Collier for having 
robbed an English vessel of provisions. A few days later, 
on 2nd January, a council of war was held aboard the 
" Oxford," where it was decided that the privateers, now 
numbering about 900 men, should attack Cartagena. 
While the captains were at dinner on the quarter-deck, 
however, the frigate blew up, and about 200 men, including 
five captains, were lost. 3 " I was eating my dinner with 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, Nos. 1863, 1867, 1892. 

2 Ibid., No. 1867 ; Beeston's Journal, 15th October 1668. 

3 Ibid. ; C.S.P. Colon., 1674-76, Addenda, No. 1207. 

155 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

the rest," writes the surgeon, Richard Browne, "when the 
mainmasts blew out, and fell upon Captains Aylett, 
Bigford, and others, and knocked them on the head ; I 
saved myself by getting astride the mizzenmast." It 
seems that out of the whole ship only Morgan and those 
who sat on his side of the table were saved. The accident 
was probably caused by the carelessness of a gunner. 
Captain Collier sailed in la Vivon's ship for Jamaica, 
where the French captain was convicted of piracy in the 
Admiralty Court, and reprieved by Governor Modyford, 
but his ship confiscated. 1 

Morgan, from the rendezvous at the Isle la Vache, had 
coasted along the southern shores of Hispaniola and made 
several inroads upon the island for the purpose of securing 
beef and other provisions. Some of his ships, meanwhile, 
had been separated from the body of the fleet, and at last 
he found himself with but eight vessels and 400 or 500 
men, scarcely more than half his original company. With 
these small numbers he changed his resolution to attempt 
Cartagena, and set sail for Maracaibo, a town situated on 
the great lagoon of that name in Venezuela. This town 
had been pillaged in 1667, j ust before the peace of Aix-la- 
Chapelle, by 650 buccaneers led by two French captains, 
L'Olonnais and Michel le Basque, and had suffered all the 
horrors attendant upon such a visit. In March 1669 
Morgan appeared at the entrance to the lake, forced the 
passage after a day's hot bombardment, dismantled the 
fort which commanded it, and entered Maracaibo, from 
which the inhabitants had fled before him. The 

1 Exquemelin gives a French version of the episode, according to which 
the commander of the "Cour Volant" had given bills of exchange upon 
Jamaica and Tortuga for the provisions he had taken out of the English ship ; 
but Morgan, because he could not prevail on the French captain to join his 
proposed expedition, used this merely as a pretext to seize the ship for piracy. 
The "Cour Volant," turned into a privateer and called the "Satisfaction," 
was used by Morgan as his flagship in the expedition against Panama. 

156 



POKTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

buccaneers sacked the town, and scoured the woods in 
search of the Spaniards and their valuables. Men, women 
and children were brought in and cruelly tortured to make 
them confess where their treasures were hid. Morgan, at 
the end of three weeks, " having now got by degrees into 
his hands about ioo of the chief families," resolved to go to 
Gibraltar, near the head of the lake, as L'Olonnais had 
done before him. Here the scenes of inhuman cruelty, 
" the tortures, murders, robberies and such like insolences," 
were repeated for five weeks ; after which the buccaneers, 
gathering up their rich booty, returned to Maracaibo, 
carrying with them four hostages for the ransom of the 
town and prisoners, which the inhabitants promised to 
send after them. At Maracaibo Morgan learnt that three 
large Spanish men-of-war were lying off the entrance of 
the lake, and that the fort, in the meantime, had been 
armed and manned and put into a posture of defence. In 
order to gain time he entered into negotiations with the 
Spanish admiral, Don Alonso del Campo y Espinosa, 
while the privateers carefully made ready a fireship 
disguised as a man-of-war. At dawn on ist May 1669, 
according to Exquemelin, they approached the Spanish 
ships riding at anchor within the entry of the lake, and 
sending the fireship ahead of the rest, steered directly 
for them. The fireship fell foul of the "Almirante," a 
vessel of forty guns, grappled with her and set her in 
flames. The second Spanish ship, when the plight of the 
Admiral was discovered, was run aground and burnt by 
her own men. The third was captured by the buccaneers. 
As no quarter was given or taken, the loss of the Spaniards 
must have been considerable, although some of those on the 
Admiral, including Don Alonso, succeeded in reaching 
shore. From a pilot picked up by the buccaneers, Morgan 
learned that in the flagship was a great quantity of plate 
to the value of 40,000 pieces of eight. Of this he succeeded 

iS7 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

in recovering about half, much of it melted by the force of 
the heat. Morgan then returned to Maracaibo to refit his 
prize, and opening negotiations again with Don Alonso, 
he actually succeeded in obtaining 20,000 pieces of eight 
and 500 head of cattle as a ransom for the city. Per- 
mission to pass the fort, however, the Spaniard refused. 
So, having first made a division of the spoil, 1 Morgan 
resorted to an ingenious stratagem to effect his egress 
from the lake. He led the Spaniards to believe that he 
was landing his men for an attack on the fort from the 
land side ; and while the Spaniards were moving their 
guns in that direction, Morgan in the night, by the light of 
the moon, let his ships drop gently down with the tide till 
they were abreast of the fort, and then suddenly spreading 
sail made good his escape. On 17th May the buccaneers 
returned to Port Royal. 

These events in the West Indies filled the Spanish 
Court with impotent rage, and the Conde de Molina, 
ambassador in England, made repeated demands for the 
punishment of Modyford, and for the restitution of the 
plate and other captured goods which were beginning to 
flow into England from Jamaica. The English Council 
replied that the treaty of 1667 was not understood to 
include the Indies, and Charles II. sent him a long list of 
complaints of ill-usage to English ships at the hands of the 
Spaniards in America. 2 Orders seem to have been sent to 
Modyford, however, to stop hostilities, for in May 1669 
Modyford again called in all commissions^ and Beeston 
writes in his Journal, under 14th June, that peace was 
publicly proclaimed with the Spaniards. In November, 

1 According to Exquemelin the booty amounted to 250,000 crowns in 
money and jewels, besides merchandise and slaves. Modyford, however, 
wrote that the buccaneers received only .£30 per man. 

2 CS.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 1 ; S.P. Spain, vol. 54, f. 118 ; vol. 55, f. 
177. 

3 CS.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 227, 578. 

158 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

moreover, the governor told Albemarle that most of the 
buccaneers were turning to trade, hunting or planting, and 
that he hoped soon to reduce all to peaceful pursuits. 1 
The Spanish Council of State, in the meantime, had 
determined upon a course of active reprisal. A commission 
from the queen-regent, dated 20th April 1669, com- 
manded her governors in the Indies to make open war 
against the English ; 2 and a fleet of six vessels, carrying 
from eighteen to forty-eight guns, was sent from Spain to 
cruise against the buccaneers. To this fleet belonged the 
three ships which tried to bottle up Morgan in Lake 
Maracaibo. Port Royal was filled with report and rumour 
of English ships captured and plundered, of cruelties to 
English prisoners in the dungeons of Cartagena, of com- 
missions of war issued at Porto Bello and St. J ago de 
Cuba, and of intended reprisals upon the settlements in 
Jamaica. The privateers became restless and spoke darkly 
of revenge, while Modyford, his old supporter the Duke of 
Albemarle having just died, wrote home begging for 
orders which would give him liberty to retaliate. 3 The 
last straw fell in June 1670, when two Spanish men-of-war 
from St. Jago de Cuba, commanded by a Portuguese, 
Manuel Rivero Pardal, landed men on the north side of 
the island, burnt some houses and carried off a number of 
the inhabitants as prisoners. 4 On 2nd July the governor 
and council issued a commission to Henry Morgan, as 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 129. 

- Ibid., No. 149. 

In 1666 the Consejo de Almirantazgo of Flanders had offered the govern- 
ment to send its frigates to the Indies to pursue and punish the buccaneers, 
and protect the coasts of Spanish America ; and in 1669 similar proposals 
were made by the " armadores" or owners of corsairing vessels in the seaport 
towns of Biscay. Both offers were refused, however, because the government 
feared that such privileges would lead to commercial abuses infringing on the 
monopoly of the Seville merchants. Duro, op. cit., V. p. 169. 

3 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 113, 161, 162, 172, 182, 264, 280. 

4 Ibid. , Nos. 207, 211, 227, 240. 

159 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

commander-in-chief of all ships of war belonging to 
Jamaica, to get together the privateers for the defence 
of the island, to attack, seize and destroy all the enemy's 
vessels he could discover, and in case he found it feasible, 
" to land and attack St. Jago or any other place where . . I 
are stores for this war or a rendezvous for their forces." 
In the accompanying instructions he was bidden "to advise 
his fleet and soldiers that they were upon the old pleasing 
account of no purchase, no pay, and therefore that all 
which is got, shall be divided amongst them, according to 
the accustomed rules." * 

Morgan sailed from Jamaica on 14th August 1670 
with eleven vessels and 600 men for the Isle la Vache, the 
usual rendezvous, whence during the next three months 
squadrons were detailed to the coast of Cuba and the 
mainland of South America to collect provisions and 
intelligence. Sir William Godolphin was at that moment 
in Madrid concluding articles for the establishment of 
peace and friendship in America ; and on 12th June 
Secretary Arlington wrote to Modyford that in view of 
these negotiations his Majesty commanded the privateers 
to forbear all hostilities on land against the Spaniards. 2 
These orders reached Jamaica on 13th August, whereupon 
the governor recalled Morgan, who had sailed from the 
harbour the day before, and communicated them to him, 
"strictly charging him to observe the same and behave 
with all moderation possible in carrying on the war." 
The admiral replied that necessity would compel him to 
land in the Spaniards' country for wood, water and pro- 
visions, but unless he was assured that the enemy in their 
towns were making hostile preparations against the 
Jamaicans, he would not touch any of them. 3 On 6th 
September, however, Vice- Admiral Collier with six sail 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 207, 209-212, 226. 

2 Ibid., No. 194. 3 Ibid., No. 237. 

160 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

and 400 men was dispatched by Morgan to the Spanish 
Main. There on 4th November he seized, in the harbour 
of Santa Marta, two frigates laden with provisions for 
Maracaibo. Then coasting eastward to Rio de la Hacha, 
he attacked and captured the fort with its commander and 
all its garrison, sacked the city, held it to ransom for salt, 
maize, meat and other provisions, and after occupying it 
for almost a month returned on 28th October to the Isle 
la Vache. 1 One of the frigates captured at Santa Marta, 
" La Gallardina," had been with Pardal when he burnt the 
coast of Jamaica. Pardal's own ship of fourteen guns had 
been captured but a short time before by Captain John 
Morris at the east end of Cuba, and Pardal himself shot 
through the neck and killed. 2 He was called by the 
Jamaicans " the vapouring admiral of St. Jago," for in June 
he had nailed a piece of canvas to a tree on the Jamaican 
coast, with a curious challenge written both in English 
and Spanish : — 

" I, Captain Manuel Rivero Pardal, to the chief of the 
squadron of privateers in Jamaica. I am he who this 
year have done that which follows. I went on shore at 
Caimanos, and burnt 20 houses, and fought with Captain 
Ary, and took from him a catch laden with provisions and 
a canoe. And I am he who took Captain Baines and did 
carry the prize to Cartagena, and now am arrived to this 
coast, and have burnt it. And I come to seek General 
Morgan, with 2 ships of 20 guns, and having seen this, I 
crave he would come out upon the coast and seek me, 
that he might see the valour of the Spaniards. And 
because I had no time I did not come to the mouth of 
Port Royal to speak by word of mouth in the name of my 
king, whom God preserve. Dated the 5th of July 1670." 3 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74; Nos. 310, 359, 504; Exquemelin, ed. 1684, 
Pt. Ill, pp. 3-7 ; Add. MSS., 13,964, f. 24. 

2 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 293, 310. 
3S.P. Spain, vol. 57, ff. 48, 53. 

II 161 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Meanwhile, in the middle of October, there sailed into 
Port Royal three privateers, Captains Prince, Harrison 
and Ludbury, who six weeks before had ascended the 
river San Juan in Nicaragua with 170 men and again 
plundered the unfortunate city of Granada. The town 
had rapidly decayed, however, under the repeated assaults 
of the buccaneers, and the plunderers secured only £20 or 
^30 per man. Modyford reproved the captains for acting 
without commissions, but " not deeming it prudent to press 
the matter too far in this juncture," commanded them to 
join Morgan at the Isle la Vache. 1 There Morgan was 
slowly mustering his strength. He negotiated with the 
French of Tortuga and Hispaniola who were then in 
revolt against the regime of the French Company ; and he 
added to his forces seven ships and 400 men sent him by 
the indefatigable Governor of Jamaica. On 7th October, 
indeed, the venture was almost ruined by a violent storm 
which cast the whole fleet, except the Admiral's vessel, 
upon the shore. All of the ships but three, however, were 
eventually got off and repaired, and on 6th December 
Morgan was able to write to Modyford that he had 1800 
buccaneers, including several hundred French, and thirty- 
six ships under his command. 2 Upon consideration of 
the reports brought from the Main by his own men, and 
the testimony of prisoners they had taken, Morgan decided 
that it was impossible to attempt what seems to have 
been his original design, a descent upon St. Jago de Cuba, 

■ 

^.S. P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 293, 310; Add. MSS., 13,964, f. 26. 
The Spaniards estimated their loss at 100,000 pieces of eight. (Add. MSS. 
11,268, f. 51.) 

2 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 310, 359, 504. In a report sent by 
Governor Modyford to England (ibid., No. 704, I.) we find a list of the 
vessels under command of Henry Morgan, with the name, captain, tonnage, 
guns and crew of each ship. There were twenty-eight English vessels of 
from 10 to 140 tons and from o to 20 guns, carrying from 16 to 140 men ; 
the French vessels were eight in number, of from 25 to 100 tons, with from 
2 to 14 guns, and carrying from 30 to no men. 

162 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

without great loss of men and ships. On 2nd December, 
therefore, it was unanimously agreed by a general council 
of all the captains, thirty-seven in number, " that it stands 
most for the good of Jamaica and safety of us all to take 
Panama, the President thereof having granted several 
commissions against the English." 1 Six days later the 
fleet put to sea from Cape Tiburon, and on the morning 
of the 14th sighted Providence Island. The Spanish 
governor capitulated next day, on condition of being trans- 
ported with his garrison to the mainland, and four of his 
soldiers who had formerly been banditti in the province 
of Darien agreed to become guides for the English. 2 
After a delay of five days more, Lieutenant-Colonel 

1 Ibid. , No. 504. According to Exquemelin, before the fleet sailed all 
the officers signed articles regulating the disposal of the booty. It was stipu- 
lated that Admiral Morgan should have the hundredth part of all the plunder, 
P that every captain should draw the shares of eight men, for the expenses of 
his ship, besides his own ; that the surgeon besides his ordinary pay should 
have two hundred pieces of eight, for his chest of medicaments ; and every 
carpenter above his ordinary salary, should draw one hundred pieces of eight. 
As to recompenses and rewards they were regulated in this voyage much 
higher than was expressed in the first part of this book. For the loss of both 
legs they assigned one thousand five hundred pieces of eight or fifteen slaves, 
the choice being left to the election of the party ; for the loss of both hands, 
one thousand eight hundred pieces of eight or eighteen slaves ; for one leg, 
whether the right or left, six hundred pieces of eight or six slaves ; for a hand 
as much as for a leg, and for the loss of an eye, one hundred pieces of eight 
or one slave. Lastly, unto him that in any battle should signalize himself, 
either by entering the first any castle, or taking down the Spanish colours and 
setting up the English, they constituted fifty pieces of eight for a reward. In 
the head of these articles it was stipulated that all these extraordinary salaries, 
recompenses and rewards should be paid out of the first spoil or purchase they 
should take, according as every one should then occur to be either rewarded 
or paid." 

2 Sir James Modyford, who, after the capture of Providence by Mansfield 
in 1666, had been commissioned by the king as lieutenant-governor of the 
bland, now bestirred himself, and in May 1671 appointed Colonel Blodre 
Morgan (who commanded the rear-guard at the battle of Panama) to go as 
deputy-governor and take possession. Modyford himself intended to follow 
with some settlers shortly after, but the attempt at colonization seems to have 
failed. (C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 494, 534, 613.) 

163 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Joseph Bradley, with between 400 and 500 men in three 
ships, was sent ahead by Morgan to the isthmus to seize 
the Castle of San Lorenzo, situated at the mouth of the 
Chagre river. 

The President of Panama, meanwhile, on 15th December, 
had received a messenger from the governor of Cartagena 
with news of the coming of the English. 1 The president 
immediately dispatched reinforcements to the Castle of 
Chagre, which arrived fifteen days before the buccaneers 
and raised its strength to over 350 men. Two hundrec 
men were sent to Porto Bello, and 500 more were 
stationed at Venta Cruz and in ambuscades along the 
Chagre river to oppose the advance of the English. The 
president himself rose from a bed of sickness to head a 
reserve of 800, but most of his men were raw recruits with- 
out a professional soldier amongst them. This militia in 
a few days became so panic-stricken that one-third 
deserted in a night, and the president was compelled to 
retire to Panama. There the Spaniards managed to load 
some of the treasure upon two or three ships lying in the 
roadstead ; and the nuns and most of the citizens of 
importance also embarked with their wives, children and 
personal property. 2 

The fort or castle of San Lorenzo, which stood on a 
hill commanding the river Chagre, seems to have been 
built of double rows of wooden palisades, the space between 
being filled with earth ; and it was protected by a ditch 
12 feet deep and by several smaller batteries nearer the 
water's edge. Lieutenant-Colonel Bradley, who, according 
to Exquemelin, had been on these coasts before with 
Captain Mansfield, landed near the fort on the 27th of 
December. He and his men fought in the trenches from 
early afternoon till eight o'clock next morning, when they 

1 Add. MSS., 11,268, f. 51 ff. ; ibid., 13,964, f. 24-25. 
3 Ibid., 11,268, f. 51 ff. ; S.P. Spain, vol. 58, f. 156. 
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PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

stormed and carried the place. The buccaneers suffered 
severely, losing about 1 50 in killed and wounded, including 
Bradley himself who died ten days later. Exquemelin 
gives a very vivid account of the action. The buccaneers, 
he writes, " came to anchor in a small port, at the distance 
of a league more or less from the castle. The next morn- 
ing very early they went on shore, and marched through 
the woods, to attack the castle on that side. This march 
continued until two o'clock, afternoon, by reason of the 
difficulties of the way, and its mire and dirt. And although 
their guides served them exactly, notwithstanding they 
came so nigh the castle at first that they lost many of their 
men with the shot from the guns, they being in an open place 
where nothing could cover nor defend them. This much 
perplexed the Pirates . . ." [but] " at last after many doubts 
and disputes among themselves they resolved to hazard 
the assault and their lives after a most desperate manner. 
Thus they advanced towards the castle, with their swords 
in one hand and fireballs in the other. The Spaniards 
defended themselves very briskly, ceasing not to fire at 
them with their great guns and muskets continually crying 
withal : ' Come on, ye English dogs, enemies to God and 
our King ; let your other companions that are behind come 
on too, ye shall not go to Panama this bout.' After the 
Pirates had made some trial to climb up the walls, they 
were forced to retreat, which they accordingly did, resting 
themselves until night. This being done, they returned to 
the assault, to try if by the help of their fireballs they could 
overcome and pull down the pales before the wall. This 
they attempted to do, and while they were about it there 
happened a very remarkable accident, which gave them 
the opportunity of the victory. One of the Pirates was 
wounded with an arrow in his back, which pierced his body 
to the other side. This he instantly pulled out with great 
valour at the side of his breast ; then taking a little cotton 

165 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

that he had about him, he wound it about the said arrow, 
and putting it into his musket, he shot it back into the 
castle. But the cotton being kindled by the powder, 
occasioned two or three houses that were within the 
castle, being thatched with palm-leaves, to take fire, which 
the Spaniards perceived not so soon as was necessary. 
For this fire meeting with a parcel of powder, blew it up 
and thereby caused great ruin, and no less consternation 
to the Spaniards, who were not able to account for this 
accident, not having seen the beginning thereof. 

"Thus the Pirates perceiving the good effect of the 
arrow and the beginning of the misfortune of the Spaniards, 
were infinitely gladdened thereat. And while they were 
busied in extinguishing the fire, which caused great con- 
fusion in the whole castle, having not sufficient water 
wherewithal to do it, the Pirates made use of this oppor- 
tunity, setting fire likewise to the palisades. Thus the fire 
was seen at the same time in several parts about the castle, 
which gave them huge advantage against the Spaniards. 
For many breaches were made at once by the fire among 
the pales, great heaps of earth falling down into the ditch. 
Upon these the Pirates climbed up, and got over into the 
castle, notwithstanding that some Spaniards, who were not 
busied about the fire, cast down upon them many flaming 
pots, full of combustible matter and odious smells, which 
occasioned the loss of many of the English. 

" The Spaniards, notwithstanding the great resistance 
they made, could not hinder the palisades from being 
entirely burnt before midnight. Meanwhile the Pirates 
ceased not to persist in their intention of taking the castle. 
Unto which effect, although the fire was great, they would 
creep upon the ground, as nigh unto it as they could, and 
shoot amidst the flames, against the Spaniards they could 
perceive on the other side, and thus cause many to fall 

dead from the walls. When day was come, they observed 

166 




FROM EXQUEMELIN S 



ffire the cittifof^ s^= 




v'IEKS OF AMERICA," 1684-5 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

all the moveable earth that lay between the pales to be 
fallen into the ditch in huge quantity. So that now those 
within the castle did in a manner lie equally exposed to 
them without, as had been on the contrary before. Where- 
upon the Pirates continued shooting very furiously against 
them, and killed great numbers of Spaniards. For the 
Governor had given them orders not to retire from those 
posts which corresponded to the heaps of earth fallen into 
the ditch, and caused the artillery to be transported unto 
the breaches. 

" Notwithstanding, the fire within the castle still con- 
tinued, and now the Pirates from abroad used what means 
they could to hinder its progress, by shooting incessantly 
against it. One party of the Pirates was employed only to 
this purpose, and another commanded to watch all the 
motions of the Spaniards, and take all opportunities against 
them. About noon the English happened to gain a breach, 
which the Governor himself defended with twenty-five 
soldiers. Here was performed a very courageous and 
warlike resistance by the Spaniards, both with muskets, 
pikes, stones and swords. Yet notwithstanding, through 
all these arms the Pirates forced and fought their way, till 
at last they gained the castle. The Spaniards who re- 
mained alive cast themselves down from the castle into the 
sea, choosing rather to die precipitated by their own selves 
(few or none surviving the fall) than to ask any quarter 
for their lives. The Governor himself retreated unto the 
corps du garde, before which were placed two pieces of 
cannon. Here he intended still to defend himself, neither 
would he demand any quarter. But at last he was killed 
with a musket shot, which pierced his skull into the brain. 

"The Governor being dead, and the corps du garde 
surrendered, they found still remaining in it alive to the 
number of thirty men, whereof scarce ten were not 

wounded. These informed the Pirates that eight or nine 

167 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

of their soldiers had deserted their colours, and were gone 
to Panama to carry news of their arrival and invasion. 
These thirty men alone were remaining of three hundred 
and fourteen, wherewith the castle was garrisoned, among 
which number not one officer was found alive. These were 
all made prisoners, and compelled to tell whatsoever they 
knew of their designs and enterprises." 1 

Five days after the taking of the castle, Morgan arrived 
from Providence Island with the rest of the armament ; 
but at the entrance to the Chagre river, in passing over the 
bar, his flagship and five or six smaller boats were wrecked, 
and ten men were drowned. After repairing and pro- 
visioning the castle, and leaving 300 men to guard it and 
the ships, Morgan, on 9th January 1671, at the head of 
1400 men, began the ascent of the river in seven small 
vessels and thirty-six canoes. 2 The story of this brilliant 
march we will again leave to Exquemelin, who took part 
in it, to relate. The first day " they sailed only six leagues, 
and came to a place called De los Bracos. Here a party 
of his men went on shore, only to sleep some few hours 
and stretch their limbs, they being almost crippled with 
lying too much crowded in the boats. After they had 
rested awhile, they went abroad, to see if any victuals 
could be found in the neighbouring plantations. But 
they could find none, the Spaniards being fled and carrying 
with them all the provisions they had. This day, being 
the first of their journey, there was amongst them such 
scarcity of victuals that the greatest part were forced to 
pass with only a pipe of tobacco, without any other 
refreshment. 

" The next day, very early in the morning, they con- 
tinued their journey, and came about evening to a place 

1 Exquemelin, ed. 1684, Part III. pp. 23-27. 

2 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 504. Exquemelin says that there were 
1200 men, five boats with artillery and thirty-two canoes. 

168 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

called Cruz de Juan Gallego. Here they were compelled 
to leave their boats and canoes, by reason the river was 
very dry for want of rain, and the many obstacles of trees 
that were fallen into it. The guides told them that about 
two leagues farther on the country would be very good to 
continue the journey by land. Hereupon they left some 
companies, being in all one hundred and sixty men, 1 on 
board the boats to defend them, with intent they might 
serve for a place of refuge in case of necessity. 

" The next morning, being the third day of their 
journey, they all went ashore, excepting those above- 
mentioned who were to keep the boats. Unto these 
Captain Morgan gave very strict orders, under great 
penalties, that no man, upon any pretext whatsoever, 
should dare to leave the boats and go ashore. This he 
did, fearing lest they should be surprised and cut off by an 
ambuscade of Spaniards, that might chance to lie there- 
abouts in the neighbouring woods, which appeared so 
thick as to seem almost impenetrable. Having this 
morning begun their march, they found the ways so dirty 
and irksome, that Captain Morgan thought it more con- 
venient to transport some of the men in canoes (though it 
could not be done without great labour) to a place farther 
up the river, called Cedro Bueno. Thus they re-embarked, 
and the canoes returned for the rest that were left behind. 
So that about night they found themselves all together at 
the said place. The Pirates were extremely desirous to 
meet any Spaniards, or Indians, hoping to fill their bellies 
with what provisions they should take from them. For 
now they were reduced almost to the very extremity of 
hunger. 

" On the fourth day, the greatest part of the Pirates 
marched by land, being led by one of the guides. The rest 
went by water, farther up with the canoes, being conducted 

■ Morgan's report makes it 200 men. CCS. P. Colon., 1 669-74, No. 504.) 

169 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

by another guide, who always went before them with two 
of the said canoes, to discover on both sides the river the 
ambuscades of the Spaniards. These had also spies, who 
were very dextrous, and could at any time give notice of 
all accidents or of the arrival of the Pirates, six hours at 
least before they came to any place. This day about noon 
they found themselves nigh unto a post, called Torna 
Cavallos. Here the guide of the canoes began to cry 
aloud he perceived an ambuscade. His voice caused 
infinite joy unto all the Pirates, as persuading themselves 
they should find some provisions wherewith to satiate their 
hunger, which was very great. Being come unto the place, 
they found nobody in it, the Spaniards who were there not 
long before being every one fled, and leaving nothing 
behind unless it were a small number of leather bags, all 
empty, and a few crumbs of bread scattered upon the 
ground where they had eaten. 1 Being angry at this mis- 
fortune, they pulled down a few little huts which the 
Spaniards had made, and afterwards fell to eating the 
leathern bags, as being desirous to afford something to the 
ferment of their stomachs, which now was grown so sharp 
that it did gnaw their very bowels, having nothing else to 
prey upon. Thus they made a huge banquet upon those 
bags of leather, which doubtless had been more grateful 
unto them, if divers quarrels had not risen concerning who 
should have the greatest share. By the circumference of 
the place they conjectured five hundred Spaniards, more 
or less, had been there. And these, finding no victuals, 
they were now infinitely desirous to meet, intending to 
devour some of them rather than perish. Whom 
they would certainly in that occasion have roasted or 

1 Morgan says : " The enemy had basely quitted the first entrenchment and 
set all on fire, as they did all the rest, without striking a stroke." The 
President of Panama also writes that the garrisons up the river, on receiving 
news of the fall of Chagre, were in a panic, the commanders forsaking their 
posts and retiring in all haste to Venta Cruz. (CS.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 5470 

170 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

boiled, to satisfy their famine, had they been able to take 
them. 

" After they had feasted themselves with those pieces 
of leather, they quitted the place, and marched farther on, 
till they came about night to another post called Torna 
Munni. Here they found another ambuscade, but as 
barren and desert as the former. They searched the 
neighbouring woods, but could not find the least thing to 
eat. The Spaniards having been so provident as not to 
leave behind them anywhere the least crumb of sustenance, 
whereby the Pirates were now brought to the extremity 
aforementioned. Here again he was happy, that had 
reserved since noon any small piece of leather whereof to 
make his supper, drinking after it a good draught of water 
for his greatest comfort. Some persons who never were 
out of their mothers' kitchens may ask how these Pirates 
could eat, swallow and digest those pieces of leather, so 
hard and dry. Unto whom I only answer : That could 
they once experiment what hunger, or rather famine, is, 
they would certainly find the manner, by their own 
necessity, as the Pirates did. For these first took the 
leather, and sliced it in pieces. Then did they beat it 
between two stones and rub it, often dipping it in the 
water of the river, to render it by these means supple and 
tender. Lastly they scraped off the hair, and roasted or 
broiled it upon the fire. And being thus cooked they cut 
it into small morsels, and eat it, helping it down with 
frequent gulps of water, which by good fortune they had 
nigh at hand. 

" They continued their march the fifth day, and about 

noon came unto a place called Barbacoa. Here likewise 

they found traces of another ambuscade, but the place 

totally as unprovided as the two precedent were. At a 

small distance were to be seen several plantations, which 

they searched very narrowly, but could not find any 

171 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

person, animal or other thing that was capable of relieving 
their extreme and ravenous hunger. Finally, having 
ranged up and down and searched a long time, they found 
a certain grotto which seemed to be but lately hewn out of 
a rock, in which they found two sacks of meal, wheat and 
like things, with two great jars of wine, and certain fruits 
called Platanos. Captain Morgan, knowing that some of 
his men were now, through hunger, reduced almost to the 
extremity of their lives, and fearing lest the major part 
should be brought into the same condition, caused all that 
was found to be distributed amongst them who were in 
greatest necessity. Having refreshed themselves with 
these victuals, they began to march anew with greater 
courage than ever. Such as could not well go for weak- 
ness were put into the canoes, and those commanded to 
land that were in them before. Thus they prosecuted 
their journey till late at night, at which time they came 
unto a plantation where they took up their rest. But 
without eating anything at all ; for the Spaniards, as 
before, had swept away all manner of provisions, leaving 
not behind them the least signs of victuals. 

" On the sixth day they continued their march, part of 
them by land through the woods, and part by water in the 
canoes. Howbeit they were constrained to rest themselves 
very frequently by the way, both for the ruggedness 
thereof and the extreme weakness they were under. Unto 
this they endeavoured to occur, by eating some leaves of 
trees and green herbs, or grass, such as they could pick, 
for such was the miserable condition they were in. This 
day, at noon, they arrived at a plantation, where they 
found a barn full of maize. Immediately they beat down 
the doors, and fell to eating of it dry, as much as they 
could devour. Afterwards they distributed great quantity, 
giving to every man a good allowance thereof. Being thus 

provided they prosecuted their journey, which having con- 

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PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

tinued for the space of an hour or thereabouts, they met 
with an ambuscade of Indians. This they no sooner had 
discovered, but they threw away their maize, with the 
sudden hopes they conceived of finding all things in 
abundance. But after all this haste, they found themselves 
much deceived, they meeting neither Indians nor victuals, 
nor anything else of what they had imagined. They saw 
notwithstanding on the other side of the river a troop of 
a hundred Indians more or less, who all escaped away 
through the agility of their feet. Some few Pirates there 
were who leapt into the river, the sooner to reach the shore 
to see if they could take any of the said Indians prisoners. 
But all was in vain ; for being much more nimble on their 
feet than the Pirates they easily baffled their endeavours. 
Neither did they only baffle them, but killed also two or 
three of the Pirates with their arrows, shooting at them 
at a distance, and crying : ' Ha ! perros, a la savana, a la 
savana. Ha ! ye dogs, go to the plain, go to the plain.' 

"This day they could advance no further, by reason 
they were necessitated to pass the river hereabouts to 
continue their march on the other side. Hereupon they 
took up their repose for that night. Howbeit their sleep 
was not heavy nor profound, for great murmurings were 
heard that night in the camp, many complaining of 
Captain Morgan and his conduct in that enterprise, and 
being desirous to return home. On the contrary, others 
would rather die there than go back one step from what 
they had undertaken. But others who had greater courage 
than any of these two parties did laugh and joke at all 
their discourses. In the meanwhile they had a guide who 
much comforted them, saying : - It would not now be long 
before they met with people, from whom they should reap 
some considerable advantage.' 

" The seventh day in the morning they all made clean 
their arms, and every one discharged his pistol or musket 

i73 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

without bullet, to examine the security of their firelocks. 
This being done, they passed to the other side of the river 
in the canoes, leaving the post where they had rested the 
night before, called Santa Cruz. Thus they proceeded on 
their journey till noon, at which time they arrived at a 
village called Cruz. 1 Being at a great distance as yet from 
the place, they perceived much smoke to arise out of the 
chimneys. The sight hereof afforded them great joy and 
hopes of finding people in the town, and afterwards what 
they most desired, which was plenty of good cheer. Thus 
they went on with as much haste as they could, making 
several arguments to one another upon those external 
signs, though all like castles built in the air. ' For,' said 
they, 'there is smoke coming out of every house, and 
therefore they are making good fires to roast and boil 
what we are to eat.' With other things to this purpose. 

" At length they arrived there in great haste, all sweat- 
ing and panting, but found no person in the town, nor 
anything that was eatable wherewith to refresh themselves, 
unless it were good fires to warm themselves, which they 
wanted not. For the Spaniards before their departure, 
had every one set fire to his own house, excepting only 
the storehouses and stables belonging to the King. 

" They had not left behind them any beast whatsoever, 
either alive or dead. This occasioned much confusion in 
their minds, they not finding the least thing to lay hold 
on, unless it were some few cats and dogs, which they 
immediately killed and devoured with great appetite. At 
last in the King's stables they found by good fortune 
fifteen or sixteen jars of Peru wine, and a leather sack full 

1 Exquemelin makes the buccaneers arrive at Venta Cruz on the seventh 
day. According to Morgan they reached the village on the sixth day, and 
according to Frogge on the fifth. Morgan reports that two miles from Venta 
Cruz there was " a very narrow and dangerous passage where the enemy 
thought to put a stop to our further proceeding but were presently routed by 
the Forlorn commanded by Capt. Thomas Rogers." 

174 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

of bread. But no sooner had they begun to drink of the 
said wine when they fell sick, almost every man. This 
sudden disaster made them think that the wine was 
poisoned, which caused a new consternation in the whole 
camp, as judging themselves now to be irrecoverably lost. 
But the true reason was, their huge want of sustenance in 
that whole voyage, and the manifold sorts of trash which 
they had eaten upon that occasion. Their sickness was 
so great that day as caused them to remain there till 
the next morning, without being able to prosecute their 
journey as they used to do, in the afternoon. This village 
is seated in the latitude in 9 degrees and 2 minutes, 
northern latitude, being distant from the river of Chagre 
twenty-six Spanish leagues, and eight from Panama. 
Moreover, this is the last place unto which boats or canoes 
can come ; for which reason they built here store-houses, 
wherein to keep all sorts of merchandise, which from hence 
to and from Panama are transported upon the backs of 
mules. 

" Here therefore Captain Morgan was constrained to 
leave his canoes and land all his men, though never so 
weak in their bodies. But lest the canoes should be 
surprised, or take up too many men for their defence, he 
resolved to send them all back to the place where the 
boats were, excepting one, which he caused to be hidden, 
to the intent it might serve to carry intelligence according 
to the exigency of affairs. Many of the Spaniards and 
Indians belonging to this village were fled to the planta- 
tions thereabouts. Hereupon Captain Morgan gave 
express orders that none should dare to go out of the 
village, except in whole companies of a hundred together. 
The occasion hereof was his fear lest the enemy should 
take an advantage upon his men, by any sudden assault. 
Notwithstanding, one party of English soldiers stickled 
not to contravene these commands, being thereunto 

175 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

tempted with the desire of rinding victuals. But these 
were soon glad to fly into the town again, being assaulted 
with great fury by some Spaniards and Indians, who 
snatched up one of the Pirates, and carried him away 
prisoner. Thus the vigilance and care of Captain Morgan 
was not sufficient to prevent every accident that might 
happen. 

" On the eighth day, in the morning, Captain Morgan 
sent two hundred men before the body of his army, te 
discover the way to Panama, and see if they had laid any 
ambuscades therein. Especially considering that the 
places by which they were to pass were very fit for that 
purpose, the paths being so narrow that only ten or twelve 
persons could march in a file, and oftentimes not so many. 
Having marched about the space of ten hours, they came 
unto a place called Quebrada Obscura. Here, all on a 
sudden, three or four thousand arrows were shot at them, 
without being able to perceive from whence they came, or 
who shot them. The place, from whence it was presumed 
they were shot was a high rocky mountain, excavated 
from one side to the other, wherein was a grotto that went 
through it, only capable of admitting one horse, or other 
beast laden. This multitude of arrows caused a huge 
alarm among the Pirates, especially because they could 
not discover the place from whence they were discharged. 
At last, seeing no more arrows to appear, they marched a 
little farther, and entered into a wood. Here they per- 
ceived some Indians to fly as fast as they could possible 
before them, to take the advantage of another post, and 
thence observe the march of the Pirates. There remained 
notwithstanding one troop of Indians upon the place, with 
full design to fight and defend themselves. This combat 
they performed with huge courage, till such time as their 
captain fell to the ground wounded, who although he was 

now in despair of life, yet his valour being greater than his 

176 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

strength, would demand no quarter, but, endeavouring to 
raise himself, with undaunted mind laid hold of his 
azagaya, or javelin, and struck at one of the Pirates. But 
before he could second the blow, he was shot to death 
with a pistol. This was also the fate of many of his 
companions, who like good and courageous soldiers lost 
their lives with their captain, for the defence of their 

I country. 
" The Pirates endeavoured, as much as was possible, to 
lay hold on some of the Indians and take them prisoners. 
But they being infinitely swifter than the Pirates, every 
one escaped, leaving eight Pirates dead upon the place and 
ten wounded. 1 Yea, had the Indians been more dextrous 

, in military affairs, they might have defended that passage, 
and not let one sole man to pass. Within a little while 
after they came to a large campaign field open and full of 
variegated meadows. From here they could perceive at a 

! distance before them a parcel of Indians who stood on the 
top of a mountain, very nigh unto the way by which the 
Pirates were to pass. They sent a troop of fifty men, the 

I nimblest they could pick out, to see if they could catch 
any of them, and afterwards force them to declare where- 
abouts their companions had their mansions. But all 
their industry was in vain, for they escaped through their 
nimbleness, and presently after showed themselves in 
another place, hallooing unto the English, and crying : 
I A la savana, a la savana, cornudos, perros Ingleses ; ' 
that is, 'To the plain, to the plain, ye cockolds, ye 

; English dogs ! ' While these things passed, the ten 

' Pirates that were wounded a little before were dressed 
and plastered up. 

1 Frogge says that after leaving Venta Cruz they came upon an ambuscade 

of iooo Indians, but put them to flight with the loss of only one killed and 

"two wounded, the Indians losing their chief and about thirty men (S.P. 

• -Spain, vol. 58, f. 1 18.) Morgan reports three killed and six or seven wounded. 

12 177 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

"At this place there was a wood and on each side 
thereof a mountain. The Indians had possessed them- 
selves of the one, and the Pirates took possession of the 
other that was opposite unto it. Captain Morgan was 
persuaded that in the wood the Spaniards had placed an 
ambuscade, as lying so conveniently for that purpose. 
Hereupon he sent before two hundred men to search it. 
The Spaniards and Indians, perceiving the Pirates to 
descend the mountain, did so too, as if they designed to 
attack them. But being got into the wood, out of sight 
of the Pirates, they disappeared, and were seen no more> 
leaving the passage open unto them. 

" About night there fell a great rain, which caused the 
Pirates to march the faster and seek everywhere for houses 
wherein to preserve their arms from being wet. But the 
Indians had set fire to every one thereabouts, and trans- 
ported all their cattle unto remote places, to the end that 
the Pirates, finding neither houses nor victuals, might be 
constrained to return homewards. Notwithstanding, after 
diligent search, they found a few little huts belonging to 
shepherds, but in them nothing to eat. These not being 
capable of holding many men, they placed in them out of 
every company a small number, who kept the arms of all 
the rest of the army. Those who remained in the open 
field endured much hardship that night, the rain not v 
ceasing to fall until the morning. 

"The next morning, about break of day, being the 
ninth of this tedious journey, Captain Morgan continued 
his march while the fresh air of the morning lasted. For 
the clouds then hanging as yet over their heads were much 
more favourable unto them than the scorching rays of the 
sun, by reason the way was now more difficult and i 
laborious than all the precedent. After two hours' 
march, they discovered a troop of about twenty Spaniards 

who observed the motions of the Pirates. They en~ 

178 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

deavoured to catch some of them, but could lay hold on 
none, they suddenly disappearing, and absconding them- 
selves in caves among the rocks, totally unknown to the 
Pirates. At last they came to a high mountain, which, 
when they ascended, they discovered from the top thereof 
the South Sea. This happy sight, as if it were the end of 
their labours, caused infinite joy among the Pirates. 
From hence they could descry also one ship and six 
boats, which were set forth from Panama, and sailed 
towards the islands of Tavoga and Tavogilla. Having 
descended this mountain, they came unto a vale, in which 
they found great quantity of cattle, whereof they killed 
good store. Here while some were employed in killing 
and flaying of cows, horses, bulls and chiefly asses, of 
which there was greatest number, others busied themselves 
in kindling of fires and getting wood wherewith to roast 
them. Thus cutting the flesh of these animals into con- 
venient pieces, or gobbets, they threw them into the fire 
and, half carbonadoed or roasted, they devoured them 
with incredible haste and appetite. For such was their 
hunger that they more resembled cannibals than Europeans 
at this banquet, the blood many times running down from 
their beards to the middle of their bodies. 

" Having satisfied their hunger with these delicious 
meats, Captain Morgan ordered them to continue the 
march. Here again he sent before the main body fifty 
men, with intent to take some prisoners, if possibly they 
could. For he seemed now to be much concerned that in 
nine days' time he could not meet one person who might 
inform him of the condition and forces of the Spaniards. 
About evening they discovered a troop of two hundred 
Spaniards, more or less, who hallooed unto the Pirates, 
but these could not understand what they said. A little 
while after they came the first time within sight of the 

highest steeple of Panama. This steeple they no sooner 

179 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

had discovered but they began to show signs of extreme 
joy, casting up their hats into the air, leaping for mirth, 
and shouting, even just as if they had already obtained 
the victory and entire accomplishment of their designs. 
All their trumpets were sounded and every drum beaten, 
in token of this universal acclamation and huge alacrity 
of their minds. Thus they pitched their camp for that 
night with general content of the whole army, waiting with 
impatience for the morning, at which time they intended 
to attack the city. This evening there appeared fifty 
horse who came out of the city, hearing the noise of the 
drums and trumpets of the Pirates, to observe, as it was 
thought, their motions. They came almost within musket- 
shot of the army, being preceded by a trumpet that sounded 
marvellously well. Those on horseback hallooed aloud 
unto the Pirates, and threatened them, saying, ' Perros ! 
nos veremos,' that is, ' Ye dogs ! we shall meet ye.' Having 
made this menace they returned to the city, excepting only 
seven or eight horsemen who remained hovering there- 
abouts, to watch what motions the Pirates made. Immedi- 
ately after, the city began to fire and ceased not to play 
with their biggest guns all night long against the camp, 
but with little or no harm unto the Pirates, whom they 
could not conveniently reach. About this time also the 
two hundred Spaniards whom the Pirates had seen in the 
afternoon appeared again within sight, making resemblance 
as if they would block up the passages, to the intent no 
Pirates might escape the hands of their forces. But the 
Pirates, who were now in a manner besieged, instead of 
conceiving any fear of their blockades, as soon as they had 
placed sentries about their camp, began every one to open 
their satchels, and without any preparation of napkins or 
plates, fell to eating very heartily the remaining pieces of 
bulls' and horses' flesh which they had reserved since noon. 
This being done, they laid themselves down to sleep upo 

1 80 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

the grass with great repose and huge satisfaction, expect- 
ing only with impatience for the dawnings of the next day. 

" On the tenth day, betimes in the morning, they put 
all their men in convenient order, and with drums and 
trumpets sounding, continued their march directly towards 
the city. But one of the guides desired Captain Morgan 
not to take the common highway that led thither, fearing 
lest they should find in it much resistance and many 
ambuscades. He presently took his advice, and chose 
another way that went through the wood, although very 
irksome and difficult. Thus the Spaniards, perceiving the 
Pirates had taken another way, which they scarce had 
thought on or believed, were compelled to leave their stops 
and batteries, and come out to meet them. The Governor 
of Panama put his forces in order, consisting of two 
squadrons, four regiments of foot, and a huge number of 
wild bulls, which were driven by a great number of Indians, 
with some negroes and others to help them. 

" The Pirates being now upon their march, came unto 
the top of a little hill, from whence they had a large 
prospect of the city and campaign country underneath. 
Here they discovered the forces of the people of Panama, 
extended in battle array, which, when they perceived to be 
so numerous, they were suddenly surprised with great fear, 
much doubting the fortune of the day. Yea, few or none 
there were but wished themselves at home, or at least free 
from the obligation of that engagement, wherein they 
perceived their lives must be so narrowly concerned. 
Having been some time at a stand, in a wavering con- 
dition of mind, they at last reflected upon the straits they 
had brought themselves into, and that now they ought of 
necessity either to fight resolutely or die, for no quarter 
could be expected from an enemy against whom they had 
committed so many cruelties on all occasions. Hereupon 

they encouraged one another, and resolved either to 

181 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

conquer, or spend the very last drop of blood in their 
bodies. Afterwards they divided themselves into three 
battalions, or troops, sending before them one of two 
hundred buccaneers, which sort of people are infinitely 
dextrous at shooting with guns. 1 Thus the Pirates left 
the hill and descended, marching directly towards the 
Spaniards, who were posted in a spacious field, waiting for 
their coming. As soon as they drew nigh unto them, the 
Spaniards began to shout and cry, ' Viva el Rey ! God 
save the King ! ' and immediately their horse began to 
move against the Pirates. But the field being full of 
quags and very soft under foot, they could not ply to and 
fro and wheel about, as they desired. The two hundred 
buccaneers who went before, every one putting one knee 
to the ground, gave them a full volley of shot, wherewith 
the battle was instantly kindled very hot. The Spaniards 
defended themselves very courageously, acting all they 
could possibly perform, to disorder the Pirates. Their 
foot, in like manner, endeavoured to second the horse, but 
were constrained by the Pirates to separate from them. 
Thus finding themselves frustrated of their designs, they 
attempted to drive the bulls against them at their backs, 
and by this means to put them into disorder. But the 
greatest part of that wild cattle ran away, being frightened 
with the noise of the battle. And some few that broke 
through the English companies did no other harm than 
to tear the colours in pieces ; whereas the buccaneers, 
shooting them dead, left not one to trouble them there- 
abouts. 

" The battle having now continued for the space of two 
bours, at the end thereof the greatest part of the Spanish 

1 "Next morning drew up his men in the form of a tertia, the vanguard 
led by Lieutenant-Colonel Lawrence Prince and Major John Morris, in 
number 300, the main body 600, the right wing led by himself, the left by 
Colonel Edw. Colly er, the rearguard of 300 commanded by Colonel Bledry 
Morgan."— Morgan's Report. (C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 504.) 

182 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

horse was ruined and almost all killed. The rest fled 
away. Which being perceived by the foot, and that they 
could not possibly prevail, they discharged the shot they 
had in their muskets, and throwing them on the ground, 
betook themselves to flight, every one which way he could 
run. The Pirates could not possibly follow them, as being 
too much harassed and wearied with the long journey they 
had lately made. Many of them not being able to fly whither 
they desired, hid themselves for that present among the 
shrubs of the seaside. But very unfortunately ; for most 
of them being found out by the Pirates, were instantly 
killed, without giving quarter to any. 1 Some religious 
men were brought prisoners before Captain Morgan ; but 
he being deaf to their cries and lamentations, commanded 
them all to be immediately pistoled, which was accord- 
ingly done. Soon after they brought a captain to his 
presence, whom he examined very strictly about several 
things, particularly wherein consisted the forces of those 
of Panama. Unto which he answered : Their whole 
strength did consist in four hundred horse, twenty-four 
companies of foot, each being of one hundred men com- 
plete, sixty Indians and some negroes, who were to drive 
two thousand wild bulls and cause them to run over the 
English camp, and thus by breaking their files put them 

1 The close agreement between the accounts of the battle given by Morgan 
and Exquemelin is remarkable, and leads us to give much greater credence to 
those details in Exquemelin's narrative of the expedition which were omitted 
from the official report. Morgan says of the battle that as the Spaniards had 
the advantage of position and refused to move, the buccaneers made a flanking 
movement to the left and secured a hill protected on one side by a bog. 
Thereupon "One Francesco de Harro charged with the horse upon the 
vanguard so furiously that he could not be stopped till he lost his life ; upon 
which the horse wheeled off, and the foot advanced, but met with such a 
warm welcome and were pursued so close that the enemies' retreat came to 
plain running, though they did work such a stratagem as has been seldom 
heard of, viz. : — attempting to drive two droves of 1500 cattle into their rear." 
(C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 504.) 

183 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

into a total disorder and confusion. 1 He discovered more, 
that in the city they had made trenches and raised 
batteries in several places, in all which they had placed 
many guns. And that at the entry of the highway which 
led to the city they had built a fort, which was mounted 
with eight great guns of brass and defended by fifty men. 

"Captain Morgan, having heard this information, gave 
orders instantly they should march another way. But 
before setting forth, he made a review of all his men, 
whereof he found both killed and wounded a considerable 
number, and much greater than he had believed. Of the 
Spaniards were found six hundred dead upon the place, 
besides the wounded and prisoners. 2 The Pirates were 
nothing discouraged, seeing their number so much di- 
minished, but rather filled with greater pride than before, 
perceiving what huge advantage they had obtained against 
their enemies. Thus having rested themselves some while, 
they prepared to march courageously towards the city, 
plighting their oaths to one another in general they would 
fight till never a man was left alive. With this courage 
they recommenced their march, either to conquer or be 
conquered, carrying with them all the prisoners. 

" They found much difficulty in their approach unto the 
city. For within the town the Spaniards had placed 
many great guns, at several quarters thereof, some of 
which were charged with small pieces of iron, and others 
with musket bullets. With all these they saluted the 

1 Morgan gives the number of Spaniards at 2100 foot and 600 horse, and 
Frogge reports substantially the same figures. The President of Panama, 
however, in his letter to the Queen, writes that he had but 1200 men, mostly 
negroes, mulattos and Indians, besides 200 slaves of the Assiento. His 
followers, he continues, were armed only with arquebuses and fowling-pieces, 
and his artillery consisted of three wooden guns bound with hide. • 

2 According to Frogge the Spaniards lost 500 men in the battle, the 
buccaneers but one Frenchman. Morgan says that the whole day's work only 
cost him five men killed and ten wounded, and that the loss of the enemy was 
about 400. 

184 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

Pirates, at their drawing nigh unto the place, and gave 
them full and frequent broadsides, firing at them incess- 
antly. Whence it came to pass that unavoidably they 
lost, at every step they advanced, great numbers of men. 
But neither these manifest dangers of their lives, nor the 
sight of so many of their- own as dropped down continu- 
ally at their sides, could deter them from advancing 
farther, and gaining ground every moment upon the 
enemy. Thus, although the Spaniards never ceased to 
fire and act the best they could for their defence, yet not- 
withstanding they were forced to deliver the city after the 
space of three hours' combat. 1 And the Pirates, having 
now possessed themselves thereof, both killed and de- 
stroyed as many as attempted to make the least opposi- 
tion against them. The inhabitants had caused the best 
of their goods to be transported to more remote and 
occult places. Howbeit they found within the city as yet 
several warehouses, very well stocked with all sorts of 
merchandise, as well silks and cloths as linen, and other 
things of considerable value. As soon as the first fury of 
their entrance into the city was over, Captain Morgan 
assembled all his men at a certain place which he assigned, 
and there commanded them under very great penalties 
that none of them should dare to drink or taste any wine. 
The reason he gave for this injunction was, because he 
had received private intelligence that it had been all 
poisoned by the Spaniards. Howbeit it was the opinion 
of many he gave these prudent orders to prevent the de- 
bauchery of his people, which he foresaw would be very 
great at the beginning, after so much hunger sustained by 

1 " In the city they had 200 fresh men, two forts, all the streets barricaded 
and great guns in every street, which in all amounted to thirty-two brass guns, 
but instead of fighting commanded it to be fired, and blew up the chief fort, 
which was done in such haste that forty of their own soldiers were blown up. 
In the market-place some resistance was made, but at three o'clock they had 
quiet possession of the city. . . ." — Morgan's Report. 

185 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

the way. Fearing withal lest the Spaniards, seeing them 
in wine, should rally their forces and fall upon the city, 
and use them as inhumanly as they had used the in- 
habitants before." 

Exquemelin accuses Morgan of setting fire to the city 
and endeavouring to make the world believe that it was 
done by the Spaniards. Wm. Frogge, however, who was 
also present, says distinctly that the Spaniards fired the 
town, and Sir William Godolphin, in a letter from Madrid 
to Secretary Arlington on 2nd June 167 1, giving news of 
the exploit which must have come from a Spanish source, 
says that the President of Panama left orders that the city 
if taken should be burnt. 1 Moreover the President of 
Panama himself, in a letter to Spain describing the event 
which was intercepted by the English, admits that not the 
buccaneers but the slaves and the owners of the houses set 
fire to the city. 2 The buccaneers tried in vain to extin- 
guish the flames, and the whole town, which was built 
mostly of wood, was consumed by twelve o'clock mid- 
night. The only edifices which escaped were the govern- 
ment buildings, a few churches, and about 300 houses 
in the suburbs. The freebooters remained at Panama 
twenty-eight days seeking plunder and indulging in every 
variety of excess. Excursions were made daily into the 
country for twenty leagues round about to search for 
booty, and 3000 prisoners were brought in. Exquemelin's 
story of the sack is probably in the main true. In de- 
scribing the city he writes : " There belonged to this city 
(which is also the head of a bishopric) eight monasteries, 
whereof seven were for men and one for women, two 
stately churches and one hospital. The churches and 
monasteries were all richly adorned with altar-pieces and 
paintings, huge quantity of gold and silver, with other 



S.P. Spain, vol. 58, f. 156. 
C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 547. 
186 






PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

precious things ; all which the ecclesiastics had hidden and 
concealed. Besides which ornaments, here were to be 
seen two thousand houses of magnificent and prodigious 
building, being all or the greatest part inhabited by- 
merchants of that country, who are vastly rich. For the 
Test of the {inhabitants of lesser quality and tradesmen, 
this city contained five thousand houses more. Here were 
also great numbers of stables, which served for the horses 
and mules, that carry all the plate, belonging as well unto 
the King of Spain as to private men, towards the coast of 
the North Sea. The neighbouring fields belonging to this 
city are all cultivated with fertile plantations and pleasant 
gardens, which afford delicious prospects unto the in- 
habitants the whole year long." J The day after the 
capture, continues Exquemelin, " Captain Morgan dis- 
patched away two troops of Pirates of one hundred and 
fifty men each, being all very stout soldiers and well 
armed with orders to seek for the inhabitants of Panama 
who were escaped from the hands of their enemies. 
These men, having made several excursions up and down 
the campaign fields, woods and mountains, adjoining to 
Panama, returned after two days' time bringing with 
them above 200 prisoners, between men, women and 
slaves. The same day returned also the boat . . . which 
Captain Morgan had sent into the South Sea, bringing 
with her three other boats, which they had taken in a little 
while. But all these prizes they could willingly have 
given, yea, although they had employed greater labour 
into the bargain, for one certain galleon, which miracu- 
lously escaped their industry, being very richly laden with 
all the King's plate and great quantity of riches of gold, 
pearl, jewels and other most precious goods, of all of the 

' After the destruction of Panama in 167 1, the old city was deserted by 
■the Spaniards, and the present town raised on a site several miles to the 
•westward, where there was a better anchorage and landing facilities. 

187 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

best and richest merchants of Panama. On board of 
this galleon were also the religious women, belonging 
to the nunnery of the said city, who had embarked 
with them all the ornaments of their church, consisting 
in great quantity of gold, plate, and other things of great 
value. . . . 

" Notwithstanding the Pirates found in the ports of the 
islands of Tavoga and Tavogilla several boats that were 
laden with many sorts of very good merchandise ; all 
which they took and brought unto Panama ; where being 
arrived, they made an exact relation of all that had passed 
while they were abroad to Captain Morgan. The prisoners 
confirmed what the Pirates had said, adding thereto, that 
they undoubtedly knew whereabouts the said galleon 
might be at that present, but that it was very probable 
they had been relieved before now from other places. 
These relations stirred up Captain Morgan anew to send 
forth all the boats that were in the port of Panama, with 
design to seek and pursue the said galleon till they could 
find her. The boats aforesaid being in all four, set sail 
from Panama, and having spent eight days in cruising to 
and fro, and searching several ports and creeks, they lost 
all their hopes of finding what they so earnestly sought 
for. Hereupon they resolved to return unto the isles of 
Tavoga and Tavogilla. Here they found a reasonable 
good ship, that was newly come from Payta, being laden 
with cloth, soap, sugar and biscuit, with twenty thousand 
pieces of eight in ready money. This vessel they in- 
stantly seized, not finding the least resistance from any 
person within her. Nigh unto the said ship was also a 
boat whereof in like manner they possessed themselves. 
Upon the boat they laded great part of the merchandises 
they had found in the ship, together with some slaves they 
had taken in the said islands. With this purchase they 

returned to Panama, something better satisfied of their 

188 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

voyage, yet withal much discontented they could not meet 
with the galleon. . . . 

" Captain Morgan used to send forth daily parties of 
two hundred men, to make inroads into all the fields and 
country thereabouts, and when one party came back, 
another consisting of two hundred more was ready to go 
forth. By this means they gathered in a short time huge 
•quantity of riches, and no lesser number of prisoners. 
These being brought into the city, were presently put 
unto the most exquisite tortures imaginable, to make them 
confess both other people's goods and their own. Here it 
happened, that one poor and miserable wretch was found 
in the house of a gentleman of great quality, who had put 
on, amidst that confusion of things, a pair of taffety 
breeches belonging to his master with a little silver key 
hanging at the strings thereof. This being perceived by 
the Pirates they immediately asked him where was the 
cabinet of the said key ? His answer was : he knew not 
what was become of it, but only that finding those 
breeches in his master's house, he had made bold to wear 
them. Not being able to extort any other confession out 
■of him, they first put him upon the rack, wherewith they 
inhumanly disjointed his arms. After this they twisted a 
cord about his forehead, which they wrung so hard, that 
his eyes appeared as big as eggs, and were ready to fall 
out of his skull. But neither with these torments could 
they obtain any positive answer to their demands. Where- 
upon they soon after hung him up, giving him infinite 
blows and stripes, while he was under that intolerable pain 
and posture of body. Afterwards they cut off his nose 
and ears, and singed his face with burning straw, till he 
could speak nor lament his misery no longer. Then 
losing all hopes of hearing any confession from his mouth, 
they commanded a negro to run him through with a 

lance, which put an end to his life and a period to their 

189 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

cruel and inhuman tortures. After this execrable manner 
did many others of those miserable prisoners finish their 
days, the common sport and recreation of these Pirates 
being these and other tragedies not inferior to these. 

"They spared in these their cruelties no sex nor 
condition whatsoever. For as to religious persons and 
priests, they granted them less quarter than unto others, 
unless they could produce a considerable sum of money,, 
capable of being a sufficient ransom. Women themselves 
were no better used . . . and Captain Morgan, their leader 
and commander, gave them no good example in this 
point. . . .* 

"Captain Morgan having now been at Panama the 
full space of three weeks, commanded all things to be put 
in order for his departure. Unto this effect he gave 
orders to every company of his men, to seek out for so 
many beasts of carriage as might suffice to convey the 
whole spoil of the city unto the river where his canoes 
lay. About this time a great rumour was spread in the 
city, of a considerable number of Pirates who intended to 
leave Captain Morgan ; and that, by taking a ship which 
was in the port, they determined to go and rob upon the 
South Sea till they had got as much as they thought 
fit, and then return homewards by the way of the East 
Indies into Europe. For which purpose they had already 
gathered great quantity of provisions which they had 
hidden in private places, with sufficient store of powder, 
bullets and all other sorts of ammunition ; likewise some 
great guns belonging to the town, muskets and other 

1 The incident of Morgan and the Spanish lady I have omitted because it 
is so contrary to the testimony of Richard Browne (who if anything was pre- 
judiced against Morgan) that "as to their women, I know or ever heard of 
anything offered beyond their wills ; something I know was cruelly executed 
by Captain Collier in killing a friar in the field after quarter given ; but for 
the Admiral he was noble enough to the vanquished enemy." (C.S. P. Colon., 
1669-74, No. 608.) 

190 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

things, wherewith they designed not only to equip the said 
vessel but also to fortify themselves and raise batteries in some 
island or other, which might serve them for a place of refuge. 
" This design had certainly taken effect as they in- 
tended, had not Captain Morgan had timely advice 
thereof given him by one of their comrades. Hereupon 
he instantly commanded the mainmast of the said ship 
should be cut down and burnt, together with all the 
other boats that were in the port. Hereby the intentions 
of all or most of his companions were totally frustrated. 
After this Captain Morgan sent forth many of the 
Spaniards into the adjoining fields and country, to seek 
for money wherewith to ransom not only themselves but 
also all the rest of the prisoners, as likewise the ecclesiastics, 
both secular and regular. Moreover, he commanded all 
the artillery of the town to be spoiled, that is to say, 
nailed and stopped up. At the same time he sent out 
a strong company of men to seek for the Governor of 
Panama, of whom intelligence was brought that he had 
laid several ambuscades in the way, by which he ought 
to pass at his return. But those who were sent upon this 
design returned soon after, saying they had not found any 
sign or appearance of any such ambuscades. For a confirma- 
tion whereof they brought with them some prisoners they 
had taken, who declared how that the said Governor had 
had an intention of making some opposition by the way, but 
that the men whom he had designed to effect it were un- 
willing to undertake any such enterprise ; so that for want 
of means he could not put his design into execution. 1 

1 The President had retired north to Nata de los Santos, and thence sent 
couriers with an account of what had happened over Darien to Cartagena, 
whence the news was forwarded by express boat to Spain. (S.P. Spain, 
vol. 58, f. 156). That the president made efforts to raise men to 
oppose the retreat of the buccaneers, but received no support from the 
inhabitants, is proved by Spanish documents in Add. MSS., 11,268, ff. 33, 
37, etc 

191 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

"On the 24th of February of the year 167 1, 1 Captain 
Morgan departed from the city of Panama, or rather 
from the place where the said city of Panama did stand. 
Of the spoils whereof he carried with him one hundred 
and seventy-five beasts of carriage, laden with silver, 
gold and other precious things, besides 600 prisoners, 
more or less, between men, women, children and slaves. 
That day they came unto a river that passeth througl 
a delicious campaign field, at the distance of a league 
from Panama. Here Captain Morgan put all his forces 
into good order of martial array in such manner that the 
prisoners were in the middle of the camp, surrounded on 
all sides with Pirates. At which present conjuncture 
nothing else was to be heard but lamentations, cries, 
shrieks and doleful sighs, of so many women and children, 
who were persuaded Captain Morgan designed to trans- 
port them all, and carry them into his own country for 
slaves. Besides that, among all those miserable prisoners, 
there was extreme hunger and thirst endured at that time. 
Which hardship and misery Captain Morgan designedly 
caused them to sustain, with intent to excite them more 
earnestly to seek for money wherewith to ransom them- 
selves, according to the tax he had set upon every one. 
Many of the women begged of Captain Morgan upon 
their knees, with infinite sighs and tears, he would permit 
them to return unto Panama, there to live in company of 
their dear husbands and children, in little huts of straw 
which they would erect, seeing they had no houses until 
the rebuilding of the city. But his answer was : he came 
not thither to hear lamentations and cries, but rather to 
seek money. Therefore, they ought to seek out for that 

1 The President of Panama in his account contained in Add. MSS. 11,268, 
gives the date as 25th February. Morgan, however, says that they began the 
march for Venta Cruz on 14th February ; but this discrepancy may be due to 
a confusion of the old and new style of dating. 

192 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

in the first place, wherever it were to be had, and bring 
it to him, otherwise he would assuredly transport them all 
to such places whither they cared not to go. . . . 

" As soon as Captain Morgan arrived, upon his march, 
at the town called Cruz, seated on the banks of the river 
Chagre, as was mentioned before, he commanded an order 
to be published among the prisoners, that within the 
space of three days every one of them should bring in 
their ransom, under the penalty aforementioned, of being 
transported unto Jamaica. In the meanwhile he gave 
orders for so much rice and maize to be collected there- 
abouts as was necessary for the victualling all his ships. 
At this place some of the prisoners were ransomed, but 
many others could not bring in their moneys in so short 
a time. Hereupon he continued his voyage . . . carrying 
with him all the spoil that ever he could transport. 
From this village he likewise led away some new 
prisoners, who were inhabitants of the said place. So that 
these prisoners were added to those of Panama who had 
not as yet paid their ransoms, and all transported. . . . 
About the middle of the way unto the Castle of Chagre, 
Captain Morgan commanded them to be placed in due 
order, according to their custom, and caused every one 
to be sworn, that they had reserved nor concealed nothing 
privately to themselves, even not so much as the value 
of sixpence. This being done, Captain Morgan having 
had some experience that those lewd fellows would not 
much stickle to swear falsely in points of interest, he com- 
manded them every one to be searched very strictly, 
both in their clothes and satchels and everywhere it might 
be presumed they had reserved anything. Yea, to the 
intent this order might not be ill taken by his companions, 
he permitted himself to be searched, even to the very 
soles of his shoes. To this effect by common consent, 
there was assigned one out of every company to be the 
13 *93 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

searchers of all the rest. The French Pirates that went 
on this expedition with Captain Morgan were not well 
satisfied with this new custom of searching. Yet their 
number being less than that of the English, they were 
forced to submit unto it, as well as the others had done 
before them. The search being over, they re-embarkec 
in their canoes and boats, which attended them on the 
river, and arrived at the Castle of Chagre. 1 . . . Here 
they found all things in good order, excepting the woundec 
men, whom they had left there at the time of their de- 
parture. For of these the greatest number were dead, 
through the wounds they had received. 

"From Chagre, Captain Morgan sent presently after 
his arrival, a great boat unto Porto Bello, wherein were 
all the prisoners he had taken at the Isle of St. Catherine, 
demanding by them a considerable ransom for the Castle 
of Chagre, where he then was, threatening otherwise to 
ruin and demolish it even to the ground. To this 
message those of Porto Bello made answer : they would 
not give one farthing towards the ransom of the said 
castle, and that the English might do with it as they 
pleased. This answer being come, the dividend was 
made of all the spoil they had purchased in that voyage. 
Thus every company and every particular person therein 
included received their portion of what was gotten ; or 
rather what part thereof Captain Morgan was pleased to 
give them. For so it was, that the rest of his companions, 
even of his own nation, complained of his proceedings in 
this particular, and feared not to tell him openly to his 
face, that he had reserved the best jewels to himself. 
For they judged it impossible that no greater share 
should belong unto them than two hundred pieces of 
eight per capita, of so many valuable purchases and 
robberies as they had obtained. Which small sum they 

1 The buccaneers arrived at Chagre on 26th February. — Morgan's account. 

194 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

thought too little reward for so much labour and such 
huge and manifest dangers as they had so often exposed 
their lives unto. But Captain Morgan was deaf to all 
these and many other complaints of this kind, having 
designed in his mind to cheat them of as much as he 
could." * 

On 6th March 1671, Morgan, after demolishing the 
fort and other edifices at Chagre and spiking all the guns, 
got secretly on board his own ship, if we are to believe 
Exquemelin, and followed by only three or four vessels 
of the fleet, returned to Port Royal. The rest of the fleet 
scattered, most of the ships having "much ado to find 
sufficient victuals and provisions for their voyage to 
Jamaica." At the end of August not more than ten 
vessels of the original thirty-six had made their way 
back to the English colony. Morgan, with very inadequate 
means, accomplished a feat which had been the dream 
of Drake and other English sailors for a century or more, 
and which Admiral Vernon in 1741 with a much greater 
armament feared even to attempt. For display of re- 
markable leadership and reckless bravery the expedition 
against Panama has never been surpassed. Its brilliance 
was only clouded by the cruelty and rapacity of the 
victors — a force levied without pay and little discipline, 
and unrestrained, if not encouraged, in brutality by 
Morgan himself. Exquemelin's accusation against Morgan, 
of avarice and dishonesty in the division of the spoil 
amongst his followers, is, unfortunately for the admiral's 
reputation, too well substantiated. Richard Browne, the 
-surgeon-general of the fleet, estimated the plunder at 
over ^"70,000 "besides other rich goods," of which the 
soldiers were miserably cheated, each man receiving but 
.£10 as his share. At Chagre, he writes, the leaders gave 
what they pleased "for which ... we must be content 

1 Exquemelin, ed. 1684, Part III. pp. 31-76. 

195 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

or else be clapped in irons." The wronged seamen were 
loud in their complaints against Morgan, Collier and the 
other captains for starving, cheating and deserting them ; 
but so long as Modyford was governor they could obtain 
no redress. The commanders "dared but seldom appear," 
writes Browne, "the widows, orphans and injured in- 
habitants who had so freely advanced upon the hopes oi 
a glorious design, being now ruined through fitting out 
the privateers." J The Spaniards reckoned their whole 
loss-at 6,000,000 crowns. 2 

On 31st May 1671, the Council of Jamaica extended 
vote of thanks to Morgan for the execution of his late 
commission, and formally expressed their approval of the 
manner in which he had conducted himself. 3 There can 
be no question but that the governor had full knowledge 
of Morgan's intentions before the fleet sailed from Cape 
Tiburon. After the decision of the council of officers on 
2nd December to attack Panama, a boat was dispatchec 
to Jamaica to inform Modyford, and in a letter written tc 
Morgan ten days after the arrival of the vessel the 
governor gave no countermand to the decision.* Doubt- 
less the defence made, that the governor and council were 
trying to forestall an impending invasion of Jamaica by 
the Spaniards, was sincere. But it is also very probable 
that they were in part deceived into this belief by Morgan 
and his followers, who made it their first object to get 
prisoners, and obtain from them by force a confession that 
at Cartagena, Porto Bello or some other Spanish maritime 
port the Spaniards were mustering men and fitting 
fleet to invade the island. 

By a strange irony of fate, on 8th- 1 8th July 1670 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 608. Wm. Frogge, too, says that the 
share of each man was only £lo. 

2 Add. MSS., 11,268. * C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 542, I. 
« Ibid., No. 542,11. 

196 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

treaty was concluded at Madrid by Sir William Godolphin 
for "composing differences, restraining depredations and 
establishing peace" in America. No trading privileges 
in the West Indies were granted by either crown, but the 
King of Spain acknowledged the sovereignty of the King 
of England over all islands, colonies, etc., in America then 
in possession of the English, and the ships of either nation, 
in case of distress, were to have entertainment and aid in 
the ports of the other. The treaty was to be published in 
the West Indies simultaneously by English and Spanish 
governors within eight months after its ratification. 1 In 
May of the following year, a messenger from San Domingo 
arrived in- Port Royal with a copy of the articles of peace, 
to propose that a day be fixed for their publication, and 
to offer an exchange of prisoners. 2 Modyford had as yet 
received no official notice from England of the treaty, and 
might with justice complain to the authorities at home of 
their neglect. 3 Shortly after, however, a new governor 
came to relieve him of further responsibility. Charles II. 
had probably placated the Spanish ambassador in 1670 by 
promising the removal of Modyford and the dispatch of 
another governor well-disposed to the Spaniards. 4 At any 
rate, a commission was issued in September 1670, appoint- 
ing Colonel Thomas Lynch Lieutenant-Governor of 
Jamaica, to command there in the "want, absence or dis- 
ability " of the governor ; 5 and on 4th January following, 
in spite of a petition of the officers, freeholders and inhabit- 
ants of Jamaica in favour of Modyford, 6 the commission of 

1 S.P. Spain, vol. 57, f. 76; vol. 58, f. 27. 

2 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 513, 531, 532, 544 ; Beeston's Journal. 

3 S.P. Spain, vol. 58, f. 30. 

* Cf. Memorial of the Conde de Molina complaining that a new governor 
had not been sent to Jamaica, as promised, nor the old governor recalled, 
26th Feb. 1671 (S.P. Spain, vol. 58, f. 62). 

s C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 272. 

6 Ibid., No. 331. 

197 






BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

the governor was revoked. 1 Lynch arrived in Jamaica on 
25th June with instructions, as soon as he had possession 
of the government and forts, to arrest Sir Thomas Mody- 
ford and send him home under guard to answer charges 
laid against him. 2 Fearing to exasperate the friends of 
the old governor, Lynch hesitated to carry out his instruc- 
tions until 1 2th August, when he invited Modyford on 
board the frigate " Assistance," with several members of 
the council, and produced the royal orders for his arrest. 
Lynch assured him, however, that his life and fortune were 
not in danger, the proceeding being merely a sop to the 
indignant Spaniards. 3 Modyford arrived in England in 
November, and on the 17th of the month was committed 
to the Tower. 4 

The indignation of the Spaniards, when the news of 
the sack of Panama reached Spain, rose to a white heat. 
" It is impossible for me to paint to your Lordship," wrote 
Godolphin to Lord Arlington, "the face of Madrid upon 
the news of this action . . . nor to what degree of indigna- 
tion the queen and ministers of State, the particular 
councils and all sorts of people here, have taken it to 
heart." 5 It; seems that the ambassador or the Spanish 
consul in London had written to Madrid that this last ex- 
pedition was made by private intimation, if not orders, 
from London, and that Godolphin had been commanded 
to provide in the treaty for a long term before publication, 
so as to give time for the execution of the design. Against 
these falsehoods the English ambassador found it difficult 
to make headway, although he assured the queen of the 
immediate punishment of the perpetrators, and the arrest 
and recall of the Governor of Jamaica. Only by the 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 377, 424. 

2 Ibid., Nos. 405, 441, 452, 453, 552, 587. 

3 Ibid., Nos. 600, 604, 608, 655. 

* Ibid., Nos. 653, 654. 5 S.P. Spain, vol. 58, f. 156. 

198 



PORTO BELLO AND PANAMA 

greatest tact and prudence was he able to stave off, until 
an official disavowal of the expedition came from England, 
an immediate embargo on all the goods of English 
merchants in Spain. The Spanish government decided 
to send a fleet of 10,000 men with all speed to the Indies ; 
and the Dukes of Albuquerque and Medina Coeli vied 
with each other in offering to raise the men at their own 
charge from among their own vassals. After Godolphin 
had presented his official assurance to the queen, however, 
nothing more was heard of this armament. " God grant," 
wrote the English ambassador, " that Sir Thomas Mody- 
ford's way of defending Jamaica (as he used to call it) by 
sending out the forces thereof to pillage, prove an infallible 
one ; for my own part, I do not think it hath been our 
interest to awaken the Spaniards so much as this last 
action hath done." r 

1 S.P. Spain, vol. 58, f. 156. 



199 



CHAPTER VI 

THE GOVERNMENT SUPPRESSES THE BUCCANEERS 

THE new Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica, Sir Thomas 
Lynch, brought with him instructions to publish 
and carefully observe the articles of 1670 with 
Spain, and at the same time to revoke all commissions 
issued by his predecessor " to the prejudice of the King of 
Spain or any of his subjects." When he proclaimed the 
peace he was likewise to publish a general pardon to 
privateers who came in and submitted within a reasonable 
time, of all offences committed since June 1660, assuring 
to them the possession of their prize-goods (except the 
tenths and the fifteenths which were always reserved to 
the crown as a condition of granting commissions), and 
offering them inducements to take up planting, trade, or 
service in the royal navy. But he was not to insist posi- 
tively on the payment of the tenths and fifteenths if it dis- 
couraged their submission ; and if this course failed to 
bring in the rovers, he was to use every means in his 
power "by force or persuasion" to make them submit. 1 
Lynch immediately set about to secure the good-will of 
his Spanish neighbours and to win back the privateers to 
more peaceful pursuits. Major Beeston was sent to Carta- 
gena with the articles of peace, where he was given every 
satisfaction and secured the release of thirty-two English 
prisoners. 2 On the 15th August the proclamation of 
pardon to privateers was issued at Port Royal ; 3 and those 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 367. 

2 Ibid., Nos. 604, 608, 729; Beeston's Journal. 

3 Ibid., Nos. 552, 602. 

200 



SUPPRESSION OF THE BUCCANEERS 

who had railed against their commanders for cheating 
them at Panama, were given an opportunity of resorting 
to the law-courts. 1 Similar proclamations were sent by 
the governor " to all their haunts," intimating that he had 
written to Bermuda, the Caribbees, New England, New 
York and Virginia for their apprehension, had sent notices 
to all Spanish ports declaring them pirates, and intended 
to send to Tortuga to prevent their reception there. 2 How- 
ever, although the governor wrote home in the latter part 
of the month that the privateers were entirely suppressed, 
he soon found that the task was by no means a simple 
one. Two buccaneers with a commission from Modyford, 
an Englishman named Thurston and a mulatto named 
Diego, flouted his offer of pardon, continued to prey upon 
Spanish shipping, and carried their prizes to Tortuga. 3 A 
Dutchman named Captain Yallahs (or Yellowes) fled to 
Campeache, sold his frigate for 7000 pieces of eight to the 
Spanish governor, and entered into Spanish service to 
cruise against the English logwood-cutters. The Governor 
of Jamaica sent Captain Wilgress in pursuit, but Wilgress 
devoted his time to chasing a Spanish vessel ashore, steal- 
ing logwood and burning Spanish houses on the coast. 4 
A party of buccaneers, English and French, landed upon 
the north side of Cuba and burnt two towns, carrying 
away women and inflicting many cruelties on the inhabit- 
ants ; and when the governors of Havana and St. Jago 
complained to Lynch, the latter could only disavow the 
English in the marauding party as rebels and pirates, and 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 608, 633. 

2 Ibid., No. 604. 

3 Ibid. , Nos. 638, 640, 663, 697. This may be the Diego Grillo to whom 
Duro {pp. cit., V. p. 180) refers — a native of Havana commanding a vessel of 
fifteen guns. He defeated successively in the Bahama Channel three armed 
ships sent out to take him, and in all of them he massacred without exception 
the Spaniards of European birth. He was captured in 1673 and suffered the 
fate he had meted out to his victims. 

1 Ibid., Nos. 697, 709, 742, 883, 944. 

201 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDTES 

bid the Spanish governors hang all who fell into their 
power. 1 The governor, in fact, was having his hands full, 
and wrote in January 1672 that "this cursed trade has 
been so long followed, and there is so many of it, that like 
weeds or hydras, they spring up as fast as we can cut them 
down. 2 

Some of the recalcitrant freebooters, however, were 
captured and brought to justice. Major Beeston, sent by 
the governor in January 1672, with a frigate and four 
smaller vessels, to seize and burn some pirate ships careen- 
ing on the south cays of Cuba, fell in instead with two 
other vessels, one English and one French, which had 
taken part in the raids upon Cuba, and carried them to 
Jamaica. The French captain was offered to the Governor 
of St. Jago, but the latter refused to punish him for fear of 
his comrades in Tortuga and Hispaniola. Both captains 
were therefore tried and condemned to death at Port 
Royal. As the Spaniards, however, had refused to punish 
them, and as there was no reason why the Jamaicans 
should be the executioners, the captains of the port and 
some of the council begged for a reprieve, and the English 
prisoner, Francis Witherborn, was sent to England. 3 
Captain Johnson, one of the pirates after whom Beeston 
had originally been sent, was later in the year shipwrecked 
by a hurricane upon the coast of Jamaica. Johnson, im- 
mediately after the publication of the peace by Sir 
Thomas Lynch, had fled from Port Royal with about ten 
followers, and falling in with a Spanish ship of eighteen 
guns, had seized it and killed the captain and twelve or 
fourteen of the crew. Then gathering about him a party 
of a hundred or more, English and French, he had robbed 
Spanish vessels round Havana and the Cuban coast. 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 733, 742, 796. 

2 Ibid., No. 729. 

3 Ibid., Nos. 742, 777, 785, 789, 794, 796. 

202 






SUPPRESSION OF THE BUCCANEERS 

Finally, however, he grew weary of his French companions, 
and sailed for Jamaica to make terms with the governor, 
when on coming to anchor in Morant Bay he was blown 
ashore by the hurricane. The governor had him arrested, 
and gave a commission to Colonel Modyford, the son of 
Sir Thomas, to assemble the justices and proceed to trial 
and immediate execution. He adjured him, moreover, to 
see to it that the pirate was not acquitted. Colonel Mody- 
ford, nevertheless, sharing perhaps his father's sympathy 
with the sea-rovers, deferred the trial, acquainted none of 
the justices with his orders, and although Johnson and 
two of his men "confessed enough to hang a hundred 
honester persons," told the jury they could not find against 
the prisoner. Half an hour after the dismissal of the 
court, Johnson "came to drink with his judges." The 
baffled governor thereupon placed Johnson a second time 
under arrest, called a meeting of the council, from which 
he dismissed Colonel Modyford, and "finding material 
errors," reversed the judgment. The pirate was again 
tried — Lynch himself this time presiding over the court — 
and upon making a full confession, was condemned and 
executed, though " as much regretted," writes Lynch, " as 
if he had been as pious and as innocent as one of the 
primitive martyrs." The second trial was contrary to the 
fundamental principles of English law, howsoever guilty 
the culprit may have been, and the king sent a letter to 
Lynch reproving him for his rashness. He commanded 
the governor to try all pirates thereafter by maritime law, 
and if a disagreement arose to remit the case to the king 
for re-judgment. Nevertheless he ordered Lynch to sus- 
pend from all public employments in the island, whether 
civil or military, both Colonel Modyford and all others 
guilty with him of designedly acquitting Johnson. 1 

The Spaniards in the West Indies, notwithstanding the 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 742, 945, 1042. 
203 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

endeavours of Sir Thomas Lynch to clear their coasts of 
pirates, made little effort to co-operate with him. The 
governors of Cartagena and St. Jago de Cuba, pretending 
that they feared being punished for allowing trade, had 
forbidden English frigates to come into their ports, and 
refused them provisions and water ; and the Governor of 
Campeache had detained money, plate and negroes taken 
out of an English trading-vessel, to the value of 12,000 
pieces of eight. When Lynch sent to demand satisfaction, 
the governor referred him to Madrid for justice, " which to 
me that have been there," writes Lynch, "seems worse 
than the taking it away." I The news also of the imposing 
armament, which the Spanish grandees made signs of pre- 
paring to send to the Indies on learning of the capture of 
Panama, was in November 167 1 just beginning to filter 
into Jamaica; and the governor and council, fearing that 
the fleet was directed against them, made vigorous efforts, 
by repairing the forts, collecting stores and marshalling 
the militia, to put the island in a state of defence. The 
Spanish fleet never appeared, however, and life on the 
island soon subsided into its customary channels. 2 Sir 
Thomas Lynch, meanwhile, was all the more careful to 
observe the peace with Spain and yet refrain from alienat- 
ing the more troublesome elements of the population. It 
had been decided in England that Morgan, too, like Mody- 
ford, was to be sacrificed, formally at least, to the remon- 
strances of the Spanish Government ; yet Lynch, because 
Morgan himself was ill, and fearing perhaps that two such 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 733, 742, 779, 796, 820, 1022. 

2 Ibid., Nos. 650, 663, 697. Seventeen months later, after the outbreak 
of the Dutch war, the Jamaicans had a similar scare over an expected invasion 
of the Dutch and Spaniards, but this, too, was dissolved by time into thin air. 
(CS. P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 887, 1047, 1055, 1062). In this connection, 
cf. Egerton MSS., 2375, f. 491 : — Letter written by the Governor of Cumana 
to the Duke of Veragua, 1673, seeking his influence with the Council of the 
Indies to have the Governor of Margarita send against Jamaica 1500 or 2000 
Indians, "guay quies," as they are valient bowen, seamen and divers. 

204 



SUPPRESSION OF THE BUCCANEERS 

arrests might create a disturbance among the friends of 
the culprits, or at least deter the buccaneers from coming 
in under the declaration of amnesty, did not send the 
admiral to England until the following spring. On 6th 
April 1672 Morgan sailed from Jamaica a prisoner in the 
frigate "Welcome." 1 He sailed, however, with the 
universal respect and sympathy of all parties in the 
colony. Lynch himself calls him "an honest, brave 
fellow," and Major James Banister in a letter to the 
Secretary of State recommends him to the esteem of 
Arlington as "a very well deserving person, and one of 
great courage and conduct, who may, with his Majesty's 
pleasure, perform good service at home, and be very 
advantageous to the island if war should break forth with 
the Spaniard." 2 

Indeed Morgan, the buccaneer, was soon in high favour 
at the dissolute court of Charles II., and when in January 
1674 tne Earl of Carlisle was chosen Governor of Jamaica, 
Morgan was selected as his deputy 3 — an act which must 
have entirely neutralized in Spanish Councils the effect of 
his arrest a year and a half earlier. Lord Carlisle, how- 
ever, did not go out to Jamaica until 1678, and meanwhile 
in April a commission to be governor was issued to Lord 
Vaughan,* and several months later another to Morgan as 
lieutenant-governor.s Vaughan arrived in Jamaica in the 
middle of March 1675 ; but Morgan, whom the king in 
the meantime had knighted, sailed ahead of Vaughan, 
apparently in defiance of the governor's orders, and although 
shipwrecked on the Isle la Vache, reached Jamaica a week 
before his superior. 6 It seems that Sir Thomas Modyford 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 697, 789, 794, 900, 911; Beeston's 
Journal. 

2 Ibid., Nos. 697, 789. 3 ibid., Nos. 1212, 1251-5. 
* Ibid., No. 1259, cf. also 1374, 1385, 1394. 

s Ibid., No. 1379. 

6 Ibid., 1675-76, Nos. 458, 467, 484, 521, 525, 566. 

205 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

sailed for Jamaica with Morgan, and the return of these 
two arch-offenders to the West Indies filled the Spanish 
Court with new alarms. The Spanish ambassador in 
London presented a memorial of protest to the English 
king, 1 and in Spain the Council of War blossomed into 
fresh activity to secure the defence of the West Indies and 
the coasts of the South Sea. 2 Ever since 1672, indeed, the 
Spaniards moved by some strange infatuation, had per- 
sisted in a course of active hostility to the English in the 
West Indies. Could the Spanish Government have realized 
the inherent weakness of its American possessions, could 
it have been informed of the scantiness of the population 
in proportion to the large extent of territory and coast-line 
to be defended, could it have known how in the midst of 
such rich, unpeopled countries abounding with cattle, hogs 
and other provisions, the buccaneers could be extirpated 
only by co-operation with its English and French neigh- 
bours, it would have soon fallen back upon a policy of 
peace and good understanding with England. But the 
news of the sack of Panama, following so close upon the 
conclusion of the treaty of 1670. and the continued depre- 
dations of the buccaneers of Tortuga and the declared 
pirates of Jamaica, had shattered irrevocably the reliance 
of the Spaniards upon the good faith of the English 
Government. And when Morgan was knighted and sent 
back to Jamaica as lieutenant-governor, their suspicions 
seemed to be confirmed. A ketch, sent to Cartagena in 
1672 by Sir Thomas Lynch to trade in negroes, was seized 
by the general of the galleons, the goods burnt in the 
market-place, and the negroes sold for the Spanish King's 
account. 3 An Irish papist, named Philip Fitzgerald, com- 

1 S. P. Spain, vol. 63, f. 56. 

2 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 1389; ibid. 1675-76, No. 564 ; Add.RMSS., 
36,330, No. 28. 

3 CS.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 888, 940. 

206 



SUPPRESSION OF THE BUCCANEERS 

manding a Spanish man-of-war of twelve guns belonging 
to Havana, and a Spaniard called Don Francisco with a 
commission from the Governor of Campeache, roamed the 
West Indian seas and captured English vessels sailing 
from Jamaica to London, Virginia and the Windward 
Islands, barbarously ill-treating and sometimes massacring 
the English mariners who fell into their hands. 1 The 
Spanish governors, in spite of the treaty and doubtless in 
conformity with orders from home, 2 did nothing to restrain 
the cruelties of these privateers. At one time eight English 
sailors who had been captured in a barque off Port Royal 
and carried to Havana, on attempting to escape from the 
city were pursued by a party of soldiers, and all of them 
murdered, the head of the master being set on a pole 
before the governor's door.s At another time Fitzgerald 
sailed into the harbour of Havana with five Englishmen 
tied ready to hang, two at the main-yard arms, two at the 
fore-yard arms, and one at the mizzen peak, and as he 
approached the castle he had the wretches swung off, 
while he and his men shot at the dangling corpses from 
the decks of the vessels The repeated complaints and 
demands for reparation made to the Spanish ambassador 
in London, and by Sir William Godolphin to the Spanish 
Court, were answered by counter-complaints of outrages 
committed by buccaneers who, though long ago disavowed 
and declared pirates by the Governor of Jamaica, were 
still charged by the Spaniards to the account of the English. 5 
Each return of the fleet from Porto Bello or Vera Cruz 
brought with it English prisoners from Cartagena and 
other Spanish fortresses, who were lodged in the dungeons 
of Seville and often condemned to the galleys or to the 

' C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 1178, 1180, 1226; ibid., 1675-76, No. 579. 

2 Ibid., 1669-74, No. 1423; ibid., 1675-76, No. 707. 

3 Ibid., 1675-76, No. 520. « Ibid. 

5 Ibid., 1669-74, Nos. 1335, 1351, 1424; S.P. Spain, vols. 60, 62, 63. 

207 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

quicksilver mines. The English ambassador sometimes 
secured their release, but his efforts to obtain redress for 
the loss of ships and goods received no satisfaction. The 
Spanish Government, believing that Parliament was solicit- 
ous of Spanish trade and would not supply Charles II. 
with the necessary funds for a war, 1 would disburse nothing 
in damages. It merely granted to the injured parties 
despatches directed to the Governor of Havana, which 
ordered him to restore the property in dispute unless it 
was contraband goods. Godolphin realized that these 
delays and excuses were only the prelude to an ultimate 
denial of any reparation whatever, and wrote home to the 
Secretary of State that " England ought rather to provide 
against future injuries than to depend on satisfaction 
here, till they have taught the Spaniards their own interest 
in the West Indies by more efficient means than friend- 
ship." 2 The aggrieved merchants and shipowners, often only 
too well acquainted with the dilatory Spanish forms of pro- 
cedure, saw that redress at Havana was hopeless, and 
petitioned Charles II. for letters of reprisal. 3 Sir Leoline 
Jenkins, Judge of the Admiralty, however, in a report to 
the king gave his opinion that although he saw little hope 
of real reparation, the granting of reprisals was not justi- 
fied by law until the cases had been prosecuted at Havana 
according to the queen-regent's orders. 4 This apparently 
was never done, and some of the cases dragged on for 
years without the petitioners ever receiving satisfaction. 

The excuse of the Spaniards for most of these seizures 
was that the vessels contained logwood, a dyewood found 
upon the coasts of Campeache, Honduras and Yucatan, 
the cutting and removal of which was forbidden to any 
but Spanish subjects. The occupation of cutting logwood 
had sprung up among the English about ten years after 

l C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76, No. 643. 2 Ibid., Nos. 639-643. 

3 Ibid., Nos. 633-635, 729. 4 Ibid., Nos. 693, 719, 720. 

208 



SUPPRESSION OF THE BUCCANEERS 

the seizure of Jamaica. In 1670 Modyford writes that a 
dozen vessels belonging to Port Royal were concerned in 
this trade alone, and six months later he furnished a list 
of thirty-two ships employed in logwood cutting, equipped 
with seventy-four guns and 424 men. 1 The men engaged 
in the business had most of them been privateers, and as 
the regions in which they sought the precious wood were 
entirely uninhabited by Spaniards, Modyford suggested 
that the trade be encouraged as an outlet for the energies 
of the buccaneers. By such means, he thought, these 
" soldiery men " might be kept within peaceable bounds, 
and yet be always ready to serve His Majesty in event of 
any new rupture. When Sir Thomas Lynch replaced 
Modyford, he realized that this logwood-cutting would 
be resented by the Spaniards and might neutralize all 
his efforts to effect a peace. He begged repeatedly for 
directions from the council in England. " For God's sake," 
he writes, "give your commands about the logwood." 2 In 
the meantime, after consulting with Modyford, he decided 
to connive at the business, but he compelled all who 
brought the wood into Port Royal to swear that they 
had not stolen it or done any violence to the Spaniards.s 
Secretary Arlington wrote to the governor, in November 
167 1, to hold the matter over until he obtained the opinion 
of the English ambassador at Madrid, especially as some 
colour was lent to the pretensions of the logwood cutters 
by the article of the peace of 1670 which confirmed the 
English King in the possession and sovereignty of all 
territory in America occupied by his subjects at that 
date. 4 In May 1672 Ambassador Godolphin returned 
his answer. "The wood," he writes, "is brought from 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 310, 704, iv. It was a very profitable 
business for the wood then sold at ^25 or ,£30 a ton. For a description of 
the life of the logwood-cutters cf. Dam pier, Voyages, ed. 1906, ii. pp. 
155-56, 178-79, 181 ff. 

- Ibid., No. 580. 3 Ibid., Nos. 587, 638. * Ibid., Nos. 777, 786. 

14 209 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Yucatan, a large province of New Spain, about ioo leagues 
in length, sufficiently peopled, having several great towns, 
as Merida, Valladolid, San Francisco de Campeache, etc., 
and the government one of the most considerable next to 
Peru and Mexico. ... So that Spain has as well too 
much right as advantage not to assert the propriety of 
these woods, for though not all inhabited, these people 
may as justly pretend to make use of our rivers, mountains 
and commons, as we can to enjoy any benefit to those 
woods." So much for the strict justice of the matter. 
But when the ambassador came to give his own opinion 
on the trade, he advised that if the English confined 
themselves to cutting wood alone, and in places remote 
from Spanish settlements, the king might connive at, 
although not authorize, their so doing. 1 Here was the 
kernel of the whole matter. Spain was too weak and 
impotent to take any serious revenge. So let us rob her 
quietly but decently, keeping the theft out of her sight 
and so sparing her feelings as much as possible. It was 
the same piratical motive which animated Drake and 
Hawkins, which impelled Morgan to sack Maracaibo and 
Panama, and which, transferred to the dignified council 
chambers of England, took on a more humane but less 
romantic guise. On 8th October 1672, the Council for 
the Plantations dispatched to Governor Lynch their 
approval of his connivance at the business, but they 
urged him to observe every care and prudence, to 
countenance the cutting only in desolate and uninhabited 
places, and to use every endeavour to prevent any just 
complaints by the Spaniards of violence and depreda- 
tion. 2 

The Spaniards nevertheless did, as we have seen, 
engage in active reprisal, especially as they knew the 
cutting of logwood to be but the preliminary step to the 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 825. 2 Ibid., Nos. 819, 943. 

2IO 



SUPPRESSION OF THE BUCCANEERS 

growth of English settlements upon the coasts of Yucatan 
and Honduras, settlements, indeed, which later crystallized 
into a British colony. The Queen-Regent of Spain sent 
orders and instructions to her governors in the West Indies 
to encourage privateers to take and punish as pirates all 
English and French who robbed and carried away wood 
within their jurisdictions ; and three small frigates from. 
Biscay were sent to clear out the intruders. 1 The 
buccaneer Yallahs, we have seen, was employed by the 
Governor of Campeache to seize the logwood -cutters ; and 
although he surprised twelve or more vessels, the Governor 
of Jamaica, not daring openly to avow the business, could 
enter no complaint. On 3rd November 1672, however,, 
he was compelled to issue a proclamation ordering all 
vessels sailing from Port Royal for the purpose of cutting 
dye-wood to go in fleets of at least four as security against 
surprise and capture. Under the governorship of Lord 
Vaughan, and after him of Lord Carlisle, matters con- 
tinued in this same uncertain course, the English settle- 
ments in Honduras gradually increasing in numbers and 
vitality, and the Spaniards maintaining their right to take 
all ships they found at sea laden with logwood, and 
indeed, all English and French ships found upon their 
coasts. Each of the English governors in turn had urged 
that some equitable adjustment of the trade be made with 
the Spanish Crown, if peace was to be preserved in the 
Indies and the buccaneers finally suppressed ; but the 
Spaniards would agree to no accommodation, and in 

1 Ibid., Nos. 954, 1389. Fernandez Duro (t.v., p. 181) mentions a 
Spanish ordinance of 22nd February 1674, which authorized Spanish corsairs 
to go out in the pursuit and punishment of pirates. Periaguas, or large flat- 
bottomed canoes, were to be constructed for use in shoal waters. They were 
to be 90 feet long and from 16 to 18 feet wide, with a draught of only 4 or 5 
feet, and were to be provided with a long gun in the bow and four smaller 
pieces in the stern. They were to be propelled by both oars and sails, and 
were to carry 120 men. 

211 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

March 1679 the king wrote to Lord Carlisle bidding him 
discourage, as far as possible, the logwood-cutting in 
Campeache or any other of the Spanish dominions, and 
to try and induce the buccaneers to apply themselves to 
planting instead. 1 

The reprisals of the Spaniards on the score of logwood- 
cutting were not the only difficulties with which Lord 
Vaughan as governor had to contend. From the day 
of his landing in Jamaica he seems to have conceived a 
violent dislike of his lieutenant, Sir Henry Morgan, and 
this antagonism was embittered by Morgan's open or 
secret sympathy with the privateers, a race with whom 
Vaughan had nothing in common. The ship on which 
Morgan had sailed from England, and which was cast 
away upon the Isle la Vache, had contained the military 
stores for Jamaica, most of which were lost in the wreck. 
Morgan, contrary to Lord Vaughan's positive and written 
orders, had sailed before him, and assumed the authority 
in Jamaica a week before the arrival of the governor at 
Port Royal. This the governor seems to have been un- 
able to forgive. He openly blamed Morgan for the 
wreck and the loss of the stores ; and only two months 
after his coming to Jamaica, in May 1675, he wrote to 
England that for the good of His Majesty's service he 
thought Morgan ought to be removed, and the charge of 
so useless an officer saved. 2 In September he wrote that 
he was " every day more convinced of (Morgan's) imprud- 
ence and unfitness to have anything to do in the Civil 
Government, and of what hazards the island may run by 
so dangerous a succession." Sir Henry, he continued, 
had made himself and his authority so cheap at the Port, 
drinking and gaming in the taverns, that the governor 
intended to remove thither speedily himself for the reputa- 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 950, 1094; Beeston's Journal, Aug. 1679. 

2 Ibid., 1675-76, No. 566. 

212 



SUPPRESSION OF THE BUCCANEERS 

tion of the island and the security of the place. 1 He re- 
commended that his predecessor, Sir Thomas Lynch, 
whom he praises for "his prudent government and 
conduct of affairs," be appointed his deputy instead of 
Morgan in the event of the governor's death or absence. 2 
Lord Vaughan's chief grievance, however, was the 
lieutenant-governor's secret encouragement of the 
buccaneers. " What I most resent," he writes again, 
"is . . . that I find Sir Henry, contrary to his duty 
and trust, endeavours to set up privateering, and has 
obstructed all my designs and purposes for the reducing 
of those that do use this course of life." 3 When he had 
issued proclamations, the governor continued, declaring 
as pirates all the buccaneers who refused to submit, Sir 
Henry had encouraged the English freebooters to take 
French commissions, had himself fitted them out for sea, 
and had received authority from the French Governor of 
Tortuga to collect the tenths on prize goods brought into 
Jamaica under cover of these commissions. The quarrel 
came to a head over the arrest and trial of a buccaneer 
named John Deane, commander of the ship " St David." 
Deane was accused of having stopped a ship called the 
"John Adventure," taken out several pipes of wine and 
a cable worth ;£ioo, and forcibly carried the vessel to 
Jamaica. He was also reported to be wearing Dutch, 
French and Spanish colours without commission. 4 When 
the "John Adventure" entered Port Royal it was seized 
by the governor for landing goods without entry, contrary 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76, No. 673. 

2 Ibid., No. 526. In significant contrast to Lord Vaughan's praise of 
Lynch, Sir Henry Morgan, who could have little love for the man who had 
shipped him and Modyford as prisoners to England, filled the ears of Secretary 
Williamson with veiled accusations against Lynch of having tampered with 
the revenues and neglected the defences of the island. {Ibid. , No. 521.) 

3 Ibid. , No. 912. In testimony of Lord Vaughan's straightforward policy 
toward buccaneering, cf. Beeston's Journal, June 1676. 

* C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76, No. 988.' 

213 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

to the Acts of Navigation, and on complaint of the 
master of the vessel that he had been robbed by 
Deane and other privateers, Sir Henry Morgan was 
ordered to imprison the offenders. The lieutenant- 
governor, however, seems rather to have encouraged them 
to escape, 1 until Deane made so bold as to accuse the 
governor of illegal seizure. Deane was in consequence 
arrested by the governor, and on 27th April 1676, in a j 
Court of Admiralty presided over by Lord Vaughan as 
vice-admiral, was tried and condemned to suffer death 
as a pirate, 2 The proceedings, however, were not warranted 
by legal practice, for according to statutes of the twenty- 
seventh and twenty-eighth years of Henry VIII., pirates 
might not be tried in an Admiralty Court, but only under 
the Common Law of England by a Commission of Oyer 
and Terminer under the great seal. 3 After obtaining an 
opinion to this effect from the Judge of the Admiralty, 
the English Council wrote to Lord Vaughan staying the 
execution of Deane, and ordering a new trial to be held 
under a proper commission about to be forwarded to him.'' 
The Governor of Jamaica, however, upon receiving a con- 
fession from Deane and frequent petitions for pardon, 
had reprieved the pirate a month before the letter from 
the council reached him. 5 The incident had good effect 
in persuading the freebooters to come in, and that result 
assured, the governor could afford to bend to popular 
clamour in favour of the culprit. In the latter part of 
1677 a standing commission of Oyer and Terminer for the 

1 Leeds MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm., XL pt. 7, p. 13) — Depositions in which 
Sir Henry Morgan is represented as endeavouring to hush up the matter, 
saying "the privateers were poore, honest fellows," to which the plundered 
captain replied " that he had not found them soe." 

2 C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76; Nos. 860, 913. 

3 Statutes at Large, vol. ii. (Lond. 1786), pp. 210, 247. 
* C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76; Nos. 993-995, 1001. 

5 Ibid,, No. 1093. 

214 



SUPPRESSION OF THE BUCCANEERS 

trial of pirates in Jamaica was prepared by the attorney- 
general and sent to the colony. 1 

After the trial of Deane, the lieutenant-governor, 
according to Lord Vaughan, had openly expressed himself, 
both in the taverns and in his own house, in vindication of 
the condemned man and in disparagement of Vaughan 
himself. 2 The quarrel hung fire, however, until on 24th 
July when the governor, in obedience to orders from 
England, 3 cited Morgan and his brother-in-law, Colonel 
Byndloss, to appear before the council. Against Morgan 
he brought formal charges of using the governor's name 
and authority without his orders in letters written to the 
captains of the privateers, and Byndloss he accused of 
unlawfully holding a commission from a foreign governor 
to collect the tenths on condemned prize goods. 4 Morgan 
in his defence to Secretary Coventry flatly denied the 
charges, and denounced the letters written to the privateers 
as forgeries ; and Byndloss declared his readiness " to go in 
this frigate with a tender of six or eight guns and so to 
deal with the privateers at sea, and in their holes {sic) 
bring in the chief of them to His Majesty's obedience or 
bring in their heads and destroy their ships." 5 There 
seems to be little doubt that letters were written by 
Morgan to certain privateers soon after his arrival in 
Jamaica, offering them, in the name of the governor, favour 
and protection in Port Royal. Copies of these letters, 
indeed, still exist ; 6 but whether they were actually used 
is not so certain. Charles Barre, secretary to Sir Henry 
Morgan, confessed that such letters had been written, but 
with the understanding that the governor lent them his 
approval, and that when this was denied Sir Henry 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1677-S0, Nos. 500, 508. 

- Ibid., 1675-76, No. 916. ' Ibid., No. 1126. 

* Ibid., Nos. 998, 1006. 5 Ibid., No. 1129. 

c Ibid. , No. 1 129 (vii., viii.) ; cf. also No. 657. 

215 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

refused to send them. 1 It is natural to suppose that 
Morgan should feel a bond of sympathy with his old com- 
panions in the buccaneer trade, and it is probable that in 
1675, i n the first enthusiasm of his return to Jamaica, 
having behind him the openly-expressed approbation of 
the English Court for what he had done in the past, and 
feeling uncertain, perhaps, as to Lord Vaughan's real 
attitude toward the sea-rovers, Morgan should have done 
some things inconsistent with the policy of stern suppres- 
sion pursued by the government. It is even likely that he 
was indiscreet in some of his expressions regarding the 
governor and his actions. His bluff, unconventional, easy- 
going manners, natural to men brought up in new countries 
and intensified by his early association with the buccaneers, 
may have been distasteful to a courtier accustomed to the 
urbanities of Whitehall. It is also clear, however, that 
Lord Vaughan from the first conceived a violent prejudice 
against his lieutenant, and allowed this prejudice to colour 
the interpretation he put upon all of Sir Henry's actions. 
And it is rather significant that although the particulars of 
the dispute and of the examination before the Council of 
Jamaica were sent to the Privy Council in England, the 
latter body did not see fit to remove Morgan from his post 
until six years later. 

As in the case of Modyford and Lynch, so with Lord 
Vaughan, the thorn in his side was the French colony on 
Hispaniola and Tortuga. The English buccaneers who 
would not come in under the proclamation of pardon 
published at Port Royal, still continued to range the seas 
with French commissions, and carried their prizes into 
French ports. The governor protested to M. d'Ogeron 
and to his successor, M. de Pouancay, declaring that any 
English vessels or subjects caught with commissions 
against the Spaniards would be treated as pirates and 

1 CS.P. Colon., 1675-76, No. 1129 (xiv., xvii.). 
216 






SUPPRESSION OF THE BUCCANEERS 

rebels ; and in December 1675, m compliance with the 
king's orders of the previous August, he issued a public 
proclamation to that effect. 1 In April 1677 an act was 
passed by the assembly, declaring it felony for any 
English subject belonging to the island to serve under a 
foreign prince or state without licence under the hand and 
seal of the governor; 2 and in the following July the 
council ordered another proclamation to be issued, offering 
ample pardon to all men in foreign service who should 
come in within twelve months to claim the benefit of the 
act. 3 These measures seem to have been fairly successful, 
for on 1 st August Peter Beckford, Clerk of the Council in 
Jamaica, wrote to Secretary Williamson that since the 
passing of the law at least 300 privateers had come in and 
submitted, and that few men would now venture their 
lives to serve the French. 4 

Even with the success of this act, however, the path of 
the governor was not all roses. Buccaneering had always 
been so much a part of the life of the colony that it was 
difficult to stamp it out entirely. Runaway servants and 
others from the island frequently recruited the ranks of the 
freebooters ; members of the assembly, and even of the 
council, were interested in privateering ventures ; and as 
the governor was without a sufficient naval force to deal 
with the offenders independently of the council and 
assembly, he often found his efforts fruitless. In the 
early part of 1677 a Scotchman, named James Browne, 
with a commission from M. d'Ogeron and a mixed crew of 
English, Dutch and French, seized a Dutch ship trading in 
negroes off the coast of Cartagena, killed the Dutch 
captain and several of his men, and landed the negroes, 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76, Nos. 656, 741. 
* Ibid., 1677-80, No. 313 ; cf. also Nos. 478, 486. 

3 Ibid., No. 368. A similar proclamation was issued in May 1 681 ; cf. 
Ibid., 1681-85, No. 102. 
*Jbid., No. 375- 

217 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

about 150 in number, in a remote bay of Jamaica. Lord 
Vaughan sent a frigate which seized about 100 of the 
negroes, and when Browne and his crew fell into the 
governor's hands he had them all tried and condemned for 
piracy. Browne was ordered to be executed, but his men, 
eight in number, were pardoned. The captain petitioned 
the assembly to have the benefit of the Act of Privateers, 
and the House twice sent a committee to the governor to 
endeavour to obtain a reprieve. Lord Vaughan, however, 
refused to listen and gave orders for immediate execution. 
Half an hour after the hanging, the provost-marshal 
appeared with an order signed by the speaker to observe 
the Chief-Justice's writ of Habeas Corpus, whereupon 
Vaughan, resenting the action, immediately dissolved th< 
Assembly. 1 

The French colony on Hispaniola was an object o 
concern to the Jamaicans, not only because it served as a 
refuge for privateers from Port Royal, but also because it 
threatened soon to overwhelm the old Spanish colony and 
absorb the whole island. Under the conciliatory, oppor 
tunist regime of M. d'Ogeron, the French settlements in 
the west of the island had grown steadily in number and 
size ; 2 while the old Spanish towns seemed every year to 
become weaker and more open to attack. D'Ogeron, who 
died in France in 1675, had kept always before him the 
project of capturing the Spanish capital, San Domingo ; 
but he was too weak to accomplish so great a design 
without aid from home, and this was never vouchsafed 
him. His policy, however, was continued by his nephew 

' C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 243, 365, 383; Egerton MSS., 2395, f. 
591. 

2 In a memoir to Mme. de Montespan, dated 8th July 1677, the popula- 
tion of French San Domingo is given as between four and five thousand, white 
and black. The colony embraced a strip of coast 80 leagues in length and 9 
or 10 miles wide, and it produced 2,000,000 lbs. of tobacco annually. (Bibl. 
Nat., Nouv. Acq., 9325, f. 258). 

218 



SUPPRESSION OF THE BUCCANEERS 

and successor, M. de Pouangay, and every defection from 
Jamaica seemed so much assistance to the French to 
accomplish their ambition. Yet it was manifestly to the 
English interest in the West Indies not to permit the 
French to obtain a pre-eminence there. The Spanish 
colonies were large in area, thinly populated, and ill- 
supported by the home government, so that they were not 
likely to be a serious menace to the English islands. 
With their great wealth and resources, moreover, they had 
few manufactures and offered a tempting field for exploita- 
tion by English merchants. The French colonies, on the 
other hand, were easily supplied with merchandise from 
France, and in event of a war would prove more dangerous 
as neighbours than the Spaniards. To allow the French to 
become lords of San Domingo would have been to give 
them an undisputed predominance in the West Indies and 
make them masters of the neighbouring seas. 

In the second war of conquest waged by Louis XIV. 
against Holland, the French in the West Indies found the 
buccaneers to be useful allies, but as usually happened at 
such times, the Spaniards paid the bill. In the spring of 
1677 five or six English privateers surprised the town of 
Santa Marta on the Spanish Main. According to the 
reports brought to Jamaica, the governor and the bishop, 
in order to save the town from being burnt, agreed with 
the marauders for a ransom ; but the Governor of 
Cartagena, instead of contributing with pieces of eight, 
despatched a force of 500 men by land and three vessels by 
sea to drive out the invaders. The Spanish troops, how- 
ever, were easily defeated, and the ships, seeing the French 
colours waving over the fort and the town, sailed back to 
Cartagena. The privateers carried away the governor and 
the bishop and came to Jamaica in July. The plunder 
amounted to only £2.0 per man. The English in the 

party, about 100 in number and led by Captains Barnes 

219 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

and Coxon, submitted at Port Royal under the terms of 
the Act against Privateers, and delivered up the Bishop of 
Santa Marta to Lord Vaughan. Vaughan took care to 
lodge the bishop well, and hired a vessel to send him to 
Cartagena, at which " the good old man was exceedingly- 
pleased." He also endeavoured to obtain the custody of 
the Spanish governor and other prisoners, but without 
success, "the French being obstinate and damnably 
enraged the English had left them" and submitted to 
Lord Vaughan. 1 

In the beginning of the following year, 1678, Count 
d'Estrees, Vice-Admiral of the French fleet in the West 
Indies, was preparing a powerful armament to go against 
the Dutch on Curacao, and sent two frigates to Hispaniola 
with an order from the king to M. de Pouancay to join him 
with 1 200 buccaneers. De Pouancay assembled the men at 
Cap Francois, and embarking on the frigates and on some 
filibustering ships in the road, sailed for St. Kitts. There 
he was joined by a squadron of fifteen or more men-of-war 
from Martinique under command of Count d'Estrees. The 
united fleet of over thirty vessels sailed for Curacao on 7th 
May, but on the fourth day following, at about eight 
o'clock in the evening, was wrecked upon some coral reefs 
near the Isle d'Aves. 2 As the French pilots had been at 
odds among themselves as to the exact position of the 
fleet, the admiral had taken the precaution to send a 
fire-ship and three buccaneering vessels several miles in 
advance of the rest of the squadron. Unfortunately these 
scouts drew too little water and passed over the reefs 
without touching them. A buccaneer was the first to 
strike and fired three shots to warn the admiral, who at 

1 C S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 347, 375, 383, 1497; S.P. Spain, vol. 65, 
f. 102. 

3 A small island east of Curasao, in latitude 12 north, longitude 67 41" 
west. 

220 



SUPPRESSION OF THE BUCCANEERS 

once lighted fires and discharged cannon to keep off the 
rest of the ships. The latter, however, mistaking the 
signals, crowded on sail, and soon most of the fleet were on 
the reefs. Those of the left wing, warned in time by a 
shallop from the flag-ship, succeeded in veering off. The 
rescue of the crews was slow, for the seas were heavy and 
the boats approached the doomed ships with difficulty. 
Many sailors and marines were drowned, and seven men- 
of-war, besides several buccaneering ships, were lost on the 
rocks. Count d'Estrees himself escaped, and sailed with 
the remnant of his squadron to Petit Goave and Cap 
Francois in Hispaniola, whence on 18th June he departed 
for France. 1 

The buccaneers were accused in the reports which 
reached Barbadoes of deserting the admiral after the 
accident, and thus preventing the reduction of Curacao, 
which d'Estrees would have undertaken in spite of the 
shipwreck. 2 However this may be, one of the principal 
buccaneer leaders, named de Grammont, was left by de 
Pouancay at the Isle d'Aves to recover what he could from 
the wreck, and to repair some of the privateering vessels. 3 

1 Saint Yves, G. Les campagnes de Jean d'Estrees dans la mer des Atilles, 
1676-78; cf. also C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 604, 642, 665,687-90, 718, 
741 (xiv., xv.), 1646-47. 

According to one story, the Dutch governor of Curacao sent out three 
-privateers with orders to attend the French fleet, but to run no risk of capture. 
The French, discovering them, gave chase, but being unacquainted with those 
waters were decoyed among the reefs. 

2 C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 1646-47. 

3 Dampier says of this occasion : " The privateers . . . told me that if 
they had gone to Jamaica with £30 a man in their Pockets, they could not 
have enjoyed themselves more. For they kept in a Gang by themselves, and 
watched when the Ships broke, to get the Goods that came from them ; and 
though much was staved against the Rocks, yet abundance of Wine and Brandy 
floated over the Riff, where the Privateers waited to take it up. They lived 
here about three Weeks, waiting an Opportunity to transport themselves back 
again to Hispaniola ; in all which Time they were never without two or three 
Hogsheads of Wine and Brandy in their Tents, and Barrels of Beef and Pork." 
— Dampier, ed. 1906, i. p. Si. 

221 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

When he had accomplished this, finding himself short of 
provisions, he sailed with about 700 men to make a descent 
on Maracaibo ; and after spending six months in the lake, 
seizing the shipping and plundering all the settlements in 
that region, he re-embarked in the middle of December. 
The booty is said to have been very small. 1 Early in the 
same year the Marquis de Maintenon, commanding the 
frigate " La Sorciere," and aided by some French 
filibusters from Tortuga, was on the coast of Caracas, 
where he ravaged the islands of Margarita and Trinidad. 
He had arrived in the West Indies from France in the 
latter part of 1676, and when he sailed from Tortuga 
was at the head of 700 or 800 men. His squadron met 
with little success, however, and soon scattered. 2 Other 
bands of filibusters pillaged Campeache, Puerto Principe in 
Cuba, Santo Tomas on the Orinoco, and Truxillo in the 
province of Honduras ; and de Pouancay, to console the 
buccaneers for their losses at the Isle d'Aves, sent 800 men 
under the Sieur de Franquesnay to make a descent upon 
St. Jago de Cuba, but the expedition seems to have been a 
failure. 3 

On 1 st March 1678 a commission was again issued to 
the Earl of Carlisle, appointing him governor of Jamaica.* 
Carlisle arrived in his new government on 18th July, s but 
Lord Vaughan, apparently because of ill -health, had 
already sailed for England at the end of March, leaving 
Sir Henry Morgan, who retained his place under the new 
governor, deputy in his absence. 6 Lord Carlisle, immedi- 
ately upon his arrival, invited the privateers to come in 
and encouraged them to stay, hoping, according to his own 

1 Charlevoix, op. cit. , liv. viii. p. 120. 

3 Bibl. Nat., Nouv. Acq., 9325, f. 260 ; Charlevoix, op. cit., liv. viii. p. 122. 
3 Ibid., p. 119; C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 815, 869; Beeston's 
Journal, 18th October 1678. 

•» C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 569, 575, 618. 

5 Ibid., No. 770. 6 Ibid., Nos. 622, 646. 

222 



SUPPRESSION OF THE BUCCANEERS 

account, to be able to wean them from their familiar 
courses, and perhaps to use them in the threatened war 
with France, for the island then had "not above 4000 
whites able to bear arms, a secret not fit to be made 
public." * If the governor was sincere in his inten- 
tions, the results must have been a bitter disappoint- 
ment. Some of the buccaneers came in, others 
persevered in the old trade, and even those who returned 
abused the pardon they had received. In the autumn 
of 1679, several privateering vessels under command of 
Captains Coxon, Sharp and others who had come back 
to Jamaica, made a raid in the Gulf of Honduras, 
; plundered the royal storehouses there, carried off 500 
I chests of indigo, 2 besides cocoa, cochineal, tortoiseshell, 
i money and plate, and returned with their plunder to 
, Jamaica. Not knowing what their reception might be, one 
I of the vessels landed her cargo of indigo in an unfrequented 
[ spot on the coast, and the rest sent word that unless they 
i were allowed to bring their booty to Port Royal and pay 
the customs duty, they would sail to Rhode Island or to 
i one of the Dutch plantations. The governor had taken 
security for good behaviour from some of the captains 
before they sailed from Jamaica ; yet in spite of this they 
i were permitted to enter the indigo at the custom house 
and divide it in broad daylight ; and the frigate " Success " 
was ordered to coast round Jamaica in search of other 
privateers who failed to come in and pay duty on their 
plunder at Port Royal. The glut of indigo in Jamaica dis- 
turbed trade considerably, and for a time the imported 
product took the place of native sugar and indigo as a 
medium of exchange. Manufacture on the island was 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 770, 815, 1516 ; Beeston's Journal, 18th 
October 1678. 

- The Spanish ambassador, Don Pedro Ronquillo, in his complaint to 
Charles II. in September 1680, placed the number at 1000. (C.S.P. Colon., 
1677-80, No. 1498.) 

223 






BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

hindered, prices were lowered, and only the king's 
customs received any actual benefit. 1 

These same privateers, however, were soon out upon a 
much larger design. Six captains, Sharp, Coxon, Essex, 
Allison, Row, and Maggott, in four barques and two 
sloops, met at Point Morant in December 1679, an d on 
7th January set sail for Porto Bello. They were scattered 
by a terrible storm, but all eventually reached their 
rendezvous in safety. There they picked up another 
barque commanded by Captain Cooke, who had sailed 
from Jamaica on the same design, and likewise a French 
privateering vessel commanded by Captain Lessone. They 
set out for Porto Bello in canoes with over 300 men, and 
landing twenty leagues from the town, marched for four days 
along the seaside toward the city. Coming to an Indian 
village about three miles from Porto Bello, they were dis- 
covered by the natives, and one of the Indians ran to the 
city, crying, " Ladrones ! ladrones ! " The buccaneers, 
although "many of them were weak, being three days 
without any food, and their feet cut with the rocks for 
want of shoes," made all speed for the town, which they 
entered without difficulty on 17th February 1680. Most 
of the inhabitants sought refuge in the castle, whence they 
made a counter-attack without success upon the invaders. 
On the evening of the following day, the buccaneers re- 
treated with their prisoners and booty down to a cay or 
small island about three and a half leagues from Porto 
Bello, where they were joined by their ships. They had 
just left in time to avoid a force of some 700 Spanish 
troops who were sent from Panama and arrived the day 
after the buccaneers departed. After capturing two 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 1150, 1188, 1199, 1516 ; Beeston's 
Journal, 29th September and 6th October 1678. Lord Carlisle, in answer 
to the complaints of the Spanish ambassador, pretended ignorance of the 
source of the indigo thus admitted through the customs, and maintained that 
it was brought into Port Royal " in lawful ships by lawful men." 

224 



SUPPRESSION OF THE BUCCANEERS 

Spanish vessels bound for Porto Bello with provisions from 
Cartagena, they divided the plunder, of which each man 
received ioo pieces of eight, and departed for Boca del 
Toro some fifty leagues to the north. There they careened 
and provisioned, and being joined by two other Jamaican 
privateers commanded by Sawkins and Harris, sailed for 
Golden Island, whence on 5th April 1680, with 334 men, 
they began their march across the Isthmus of Darien to the 
coasts of Panama and the South Seas. 1 

Lord Carlisle cannot escape the charge of culpable 
negligence for having permitted these vessels in the first 
place to leave Jamaica. All the leaders in the expedition 
were notorious privateers, men who had repeatedly been 

1 Sloane MSS., 2752, f. 29; S.P. Spain, vol. 65, f. 121. According to 
the latter account, which seems to be derived from a Spanish source, the loss 
suffered by the city amounted to about 100,000 pieces of eight, over half of 
which was plunder carried away by the freebooters. Thirteen of the inhabi- 
tants were killed and four wounded, and of the buccaneers thirty were killed. 

Dampier writes concerning this first irruption of the buccaneers into the 
Pacific : — " Before my first going over into the South Seas with Captain Sharp 
... I being then on Board Captain Coxon, in company with 3 or 4 more 
Privateers, about 4 leagues to the East of Portobel, we took the Pacquets 
bound thither from Cartagena. We open'd a great quantity of the Merchants 
Letters, and found . . . the Merchants of several parts of Old Spain thereby 
informing their Correspondents of Panama and elsewhere of a certain Prophecy 
that went about Spain that year, the Tenour of which was, That there would be 
English Privateers that Year in the West Indies, who would . . . open a 
Door into the South Seas ; which they supposed was fastest shut : and the 
Letters were accordingly full of Cautions to their Friends to be very watchful 
and careful of their Coasts. 

" This Door they spake of we all concluded must be the Passage over Land 
through the Country of the Indians of Darien, who were a little before this 
become our Friends, and had lately fallen out with the Spaniards, . . and 
upon calling to mind the frequent Invitations we had from these Indians a 
little before this time, to pass through their Country, and fall upon the 
Spaniards in the South Seas, we from henceforward began to entertain such 
thoughts in earnest, and soon came to a Resolution to make those Attempts 
which we afterwards did, ... so that the taking these Letters gave the first 
life to those bold undertakings : and we took the advantage of the fears the 
Spaniards were in from that Prophecy ... for we sealed up most of the 
Letters again, and sent them ashore to Portobel." — Ed. 1906, I. pp. 200-201. 
15 225 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

concerned in piratical outrages against the Dutch and 
Spaniards. Coxon and Harris had both come in after 
taking part in the expedition against Santa Marta ; 
Sawkins had been caught with his vessel by the frigate 
" Success " and sent to Port Royal, where on 1st December 
1679 he seems to have been in prison awaiting trial ; I 
while Essex had been brought in by another frigate, the 
" Hunter," in November, and tried with twenty of his crew 
for plundering on the Jamaican coast, two of his men 
being sentenced to death. 2 The buccaneers themselves 
declared that they had sailed with permission from Lord 
Carlisle to cut logwoods This was very likely true ; yet 
after the exactly similar ruse of these men when they 
went to Honduras, the governor could not have failed to 
suspect their real intentions. 

At the end of May 1680 Lord Carlisle suddenly 
departed for England in the frigate " Hunter," leaving 
Morgan again in charge as lieutenant-governor. 4 On his 
passage home the governor met with Captain Coxon, who, 
having quarrelled with his companions in the Pacific, had 
returned across Darien to the West Indies and was again 
hanging about the shores of Jamaica. The " Hunter '* 
gave chase for twenty-four hours, but being outsailed was 
content to take two small vessels in the company of Coxon 
which had been deserted by their crews. 5 In England 
Samuel Long, whom the governor had suspended from 
the council and dismissed from his post as chief justice 
oft he colony for his opposition to the new Constitution, 
accused the governor before the Privy Council of collusion 
with pirates and encouraging them to bring their plunder 
to Jamaica. The charges were doubtless conceived in a 
spirit of revenge ; nevertheless the two years during 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, No. 1199. 2 Ibid., No. 1188. 

3 Sloane MSS. , 2572, f. 29. 

4 C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 1344, 1370. 5 Ibid., No. 1516. 

226 



SUPPRESSION OF THE BUCCANEERS 

which Carlisle was in Jamaica were marked by an in- 
creased activity among the freebooters, and by a lukewarm- 
ness and negligence on the part of the government, for 
which Carlisle alone must be held responsible. To accuse 
him of deliberately supporting and encouraging the 
buccaneers, however, may be going too far. Sir Henry 
Morgan, during his tenure of the chief command of the 
island, showed himself very zealous in the pursuit of the 
pirates, and sincerely anxious to bring them to justice ; 
and as Carlisle and Morgan always worked together in 
perfect harmony, we may be justified in believing that 
Carlisle's mistakes were those of negligence rather than 
of connivance. The freebooters who brought goods into 
Jamaica increased the revenues of the island, and a 
governor whose income was small and tastes extravagant, 
was not apt to be too inquisitive about the source of the 
articles which entered through the customs. There is 
evidence, moreover, that French privateers, being unable to 
obtain from the merchants on the coast of San Domingo 
the cables, anchors, tar and other naval stores necessary for 
their armaments, were compelled to resort to other islands 
to buy them, and that Jamaica came in for a share of this 
trade. Provisions, too, were more plentiful at Port Royal 
than in the cul-de-sac of Hispaniola, and the French gover- 
nors complained to the king that the filibusters carried 
most of their money to foreign plantations to exchange for 
these commodities. Such French vessels if they came to 
Jamaica were not strictly within the scope of the laws 
against piracy which had been passed by the assembly, 
and their visits were the more welcome as they paid 
for their goods promptly and liberally in good Spanish 
doubloons. 1 

A general warrant for the apprehension of Coxon, 

1 Cf. Archives Coloniales — Correspondance generale de St Domingue, 
vol. i.; Martinique, vol. iv. 

227 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Sharp and the other men who had plundered Porto Bello 
had been issued by Lord Carlisle in May 1680, just before 
his departure for England. On 1st July a similar warrant 
was issued by Morgan, and five days later a proclamation 
was published against all persons who should hold any 
correspondence whatever with the outlawed crews. 1 Three 
men who had taken part in the expedition were captured 
and clapped into prison until the next meeting of the 
court. The friends of Coxon, however, including, it seems, 
almost all the members of the council, offered to give 
^"2000 security, if he was allowed to come to Port Royal, 
that he would never take another commission except from 
the King of England ; and Morgan wrote to Carlisle seek- 
his approbation. 2 At the end of the following January 
Morgan received word that a notorious Dutch privateer, 
named Jacob Everson, commanding an armed sloop, was 
anchored on the coast with a brigantine which he had 
lately captured. The lieutenant-governor manned a small 
vessel with fifty picked men and sent it secretly at mid- 
night to seize the pirate. Everson's sloop was boarded and 
captured with twenty-six prisoners, but Everson himself 
and several others escaped by jumping overboard and 
swimming to the shore. The prisoners, most of whom i 
were English, were tried six weeks later, convicted of 
piracy and sentenced to death ; but the lieutenant-governor 
suspended the execution and wrote to the king for instruc- 
tions. On 1 6th June 1681, the king in council ordered 
the execution of the condemned men. 3 

1 CS.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. I420, 1425 ; Sloane MSS., 2724, f. 3. 

2 Sloane MSS. , 2724, f. 198. 

Coxon probably did not submit, for Dampier tells us that at the end of May 
1 68 1 , Coxon was lying with seven or eight other privateers at the Samballas , island s 
on the coast of Darien, with a ship of ten guns and 100 men. — Ed. 1906, i. p. 57. 

3 Ibid., f. 200 ; CS.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 16, 51, 144, 431. Everson was 
not shot and killed in the water, as Morgan's account implies, for he flourished for 
many years afterwards as one of the most notorious of the buccaneer captains. 

228 



SUPPRESSION OF THE BUCCANEERS 

The buccaneers who, after plundering Porto Bello, 
crossed the Isthmus of Darien to the South Seas, had a 
remarkable history. For eighteen months they cruised up 
and down the Pacific coast of South America, burning and 
plundering Spanish towns, giving and taking hard blows 
with equal courage, keeping the Spanish provinces of 
Equador, Peru and Chili in a fever of apprehension, finally 
sailing the difficult passage round Cape Horn, and return- 
ing to the Windward Islands in January of 1682. Touching 
at the island of Barbadoes, they learned that the English 
frigate " Richmond " was lying in the road, and fearing 
seizure they sailed on to Antigua. There the governor, 
Colonel Codrington, refused to give them leave to enter 
the harbour, So the party, impatient of their dangerous 
situation, determined to separate, some landing on Antigua, 
and Sharp and sixteen others going to Nevis where they 
obtained passage to England. On their arrival in England 
several, including Sharp, were arrested at the instance of 
the Spanish ambassador, and tried for committing piracy 
in the South Seas ; but from the defectiveness of the 
evidence produced they escaped conviction. 1 Four of the 
party came to Jamaica, where they were apprehended, 
tried and condemned. One of the four, who had given 
himself up voluntarily, turned State's evidence ; two were 
represented by the judges as fit objects of the king's 
mercy ; and the other, " a bloody and notorious villein," 
was recommended to be executed as an example to the 
rest. 2 

The recrudescence of piratical activity between the 
years 1679 and 1682 had, through its evil effects, been 
strongly felt in Jamaica ; and public opinion was now 

1 Ringrose's Journal. Cf. also S. P. Spain, vol. 67, f. 169 ; CS. P. Colon., 
1681-85, No. 872. 

2 CS. P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos - 431*632, 713; Hist. MSS. Commiss., 
VII., 405 b. 

229 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

gradually changing from one of encouragement and 
welcome to the privateers and of secret or open opposition 
to the efforts of the governors who tried to suppress them, 
to one of distinct hostility to the old freebooters. The 
inhabitants were beginning to realize that in the encourage- 
ment of planting, and not of buccaneering, lay the permanent 
welfare of the island. Planting and buccaneering, side by 
side, were inconsistent and incompatible, and the colonists 
chose the better course of the two. In spite of the frequent 
trials and executions at Port Royal, the marauders seemed 
to be as numerous as ever, and even more troublesome. 
Private trade with the Spaniards was hindered ; runaway 
servants, debtors and other men of unfortunate or desperate 
condition were still, by every new success of the buccaneers, 
drawn from the island to swell their ranks ; and most of 
all, men who were now outlawed in Jamaica, driven to 
desperation turned pirate altogether, and began to wage 
war indiscriminately on the ships of all nationalities, 
including those of the English. Morgan repeatedly wrote 
home urging the dispatch of small frigates of light draught 
to coast round the island and surprise the freebooters, and 
he begged for orders for himself to go on board and com- 
mand them, for "then I shall not much question," he 
concludes, " to reduce them or in some time to leave them 
shipless." r " The governor," wrote the Council of Jamaica, 
to the Lords of Trade and Plantations in May 1680, " can 
do little from want of ships to reduce the privateers, and of 
plain laws to punish them " ; and they urged the ratifica- 
tion of the Act passed by the assembly two years before, 
making it felony for any British subject in the West 
Indies to serve under a foreign prince without leave from 
the governor. 2 This Act, and another for the more effectual 
punishment of pirates, had been under consideration in the 

1 CS.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 1425, 1462. 

2 Ibid., No. 1 36 1. 

230 



SUPPRESSION OF THE BUCCANEERS 

Privy Council in February 1678, and both were returned 
to Jamaica with certain slight amendments. They were 
again passed by the assembly as one Act in 1681, and 
were finally incorporated into the Jamaica Act of 1683 
" for the restraining and punishing of privateers and 
pirates." J 

r CS.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 601, 606,607,611; ibid., 1681-85, No. 
160 ; Add. MSS. , 22, 676 ; Acts of Privy Council, Colonial Series I. 
No. 1203. 



231 



CHAPTER VII 

THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

ON 25th -May 1682, Sir Thomas Lynch returned to 
Jamaica as governor of the colony. 1 Of the four 
acting governors since 1671, Lynch stood apart as 
the one who had endeavoured with singleness and tenacity 
of purpose to clear away the evils of buccaneering. Lord 
Vaughan had displayed little sympathy for the corsairs, 
but he was hampered by an irascible temper, and accord- 
ing to some reports by an avarice which dimmed the lustre 
of his name. The Earl of Carlisle, if he did not directly 
encourage the freebooters, had been grossly negligent in 
the performance of his duty of suppressing them ; while 
Morgan, although in the years 1680 and 168 1 he showed 
himself very zealous in punishing his old associates, cannot 
escape the suspicion of having secretly aided them under 
the governorship of Lord Vaughan. The task of Sir 
Thomas Lynch in 1671 had been a very difficult one. 
Buccaneering was then at flood - tide ; three wealthy 
Spanish cities on the mainland had in turn been plundered, 
and the stolen riches carried to Jamaica ; the air was alive 
with the exploits of these irregular warriors, and the 
pockets of the merchants and tavern-keepers of Port Royal 
were filled with Spanish doubloons, with emeralds and 
pearls from New Granada and the coasts of Rio de la 
Hacha, and with gold and silver plate from the Spanish 
churches and cathedrals of Porto Bello and Panama. The 
old governor, Sir Thomas Modyford, had been popular in 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 501, 552. Cf. also Nos. 197, 227. 
232 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

his person, and his policy had been more popular still. 
Yet Lynch, by a combination of tact and firmness, and by 
an untiring activity with the small means at his disposal, 
had inaugurated a new and revolutionary policy in the 
island, which it was the duty of his successors merely to 
continue. In 1682 the problem before him, although 
difficult, was much simpler. Buccaneering was now rapidly 
being transformed into pure piracy. By laws and repeated 
proclamations, the freebooters had been offered an oppor- 
tunity of returning to civilized pursuits, or of remaining 
ever thereafter outlawed. Many had come in, some to 
remain, others to take the first opportunity of escaping 
again. But many entirely refused to obey the summons, 
trusting to the protection of the French in Hispaniola, or 
so hardened to their cruel, remorseless mode of livelihood 
that they preferred the dangerous risks of outlawry. The 
temper of the inhabitants of the island, too, had changed. 
The planters saw more clearly the social and economic 
evils which the buccaneers had brought upon the island. 
The presence of these freebooters, they now began to 
realize, had discouraged planting, frightened away capital, 
reduced the number of labourers, and increased drunken- 
ness, debauchery and every sort of moral disorder. The 
assembly and council were now at one with the governor 
as to the necessity of curing this running sore, and Lynch 
could act with the assurance which came of the knowledge 
that he was backed by the conscience of his people. 

One of the earliest and most remarkable cases of 
buccaneer turning pirate was that of "La Trompeuse." 
In June 1682, before Governor Lynch's arrival in Jamaica, 
a French captain named Peter Paine (or Le Pain), com- 
mander of a merchant ship called "La Trompeuse" 
belonging to the French King, came to Port Royal from 
Cayenne in Guiana. He told Sir Henry Morgan and the 
council that, having heard of the inhuman treatment of 

233 






BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

his fellow Protestants in France, he had resolved to send 
back his ship and pay what was due under his contract ; 
and he petitioned for leave to reside with the English and 
have English protection. The Council, without much inquiry 
as to the petitioner's antecedents, allowed him to take the 
oath of allegiance and settle at St. Jago, while his cargo 
was unloaded and entered customs-free. The ship was 
then hired by two Jamaican merchants and sent to 
Honduras to load logwood, with orders to sail eventually 
for Hamburg and be delivered to the French agent. 1 The 
action of the Council had been very hasty and ill-considered, 
and as it turned out, led to endless trouble. It soon 
transpired that Paine did not own the cargo, but had run 
away with it from Cayenne, and had disposed of both ship 
and goods in his own interest. The French ambassador 
in London made complaints to the English King, and 
letters were sent out to Sir Thomas Lynch and to Governor 
Stapleton of the Leeward Isles to arrest Paine and en- 
deavour to have the vessel lade only for her right owners. 2 
Meanwhile a French pirate named Jean Hamlin, with 
1 20 desperadoes at his back, set out in a sloop in pursuit 
of " La Trompeuse," and coming up with her invited the 
master and mate aboard his own vessel, and then seized 
the ship. Carrying the prize to some creek or bay to careen 
her and fit her up as a man-of-war, he then started out 
on a mad piratical cruise, took sixteen or eighteen Jamaican 
vessels, barbarously ill-treated the crews, and demoralized 
the whole trade of the island. 3 Captain Johnson was 
dispatched by Lynch in a frigate in October 1682 to find 
and destroy the pirate ; but after a fruitless search of two 
months round Porto Rico and Hispaniola, he returned to 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 364-366, 431, 668. 

2 Ibid., Nos. 476, 609, 668. Paine was sent from Jamaica under arrest 
to Governor de Cussy in 1684, and thence was shipped on a frigate to France. 
(Bibl. Nat., Nouv. Acq., 9325, f., 334.) 

3 Ibid., Nos. 668, 769, 963. 

234 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

Port Royal. In December Lynch learned that " La 
Trompeuse" was careening in the neighbourhood of the 
Isle la Vache, and sent out another frigate, the " Guernsey," 
to seize her ; but the wary pirate had in the meantime 
sailed away. On 15th February the "Guernsey" was 
again dispatched with positive orders not to stir from the 
coast of Hispaniola until the pirate was gone or destroyed ; 
and Coxon, who seems to have been in good odour at Port 
Royal, was sent to offer to a privateer named " Yankey," 
men, victuals, pardon and naturalization, besides ^200 in 
money for himself and Coxon, if he would go after " La 
Trompeuse." 1 The next news of Hamlin was from the 
Virgin Islands, where he was received and entertained by 
the Governor of St. Thomas, a small island belonging to 
the King of Denmark. 2 Making St. Thomas his head- 
quarters, he robbed several English vessels that came into 
his way, and after first obtaining from the Danish governor 
a promise that he would find shelter at St. Thomas on his 
return, stood across for the Gulf of Guinea. In May 1683 
Hamlin arrived on the west side of Africa disguised as an 
English man-of-war, and sailing up and down the coast of 
Sierra Leone captured or destroyed within several weeks 
seventeen ships, Dutch and English, robbing them of gold- 
dust and negroes. 3 The pirates then quarrelled over the 
division of their plunder and separated into two companies, 
most of the English following a Captain Morgan in one 
of the prizes, and the rest returning in " La Trompeuse " 
to the West Indies. The latter arrived at Dominica in 
July, where forty of the crew deserted the ship, leaving but 
sixteen white men and twenty-two negroes on board. 
Finally on the 27th the pirates dropped anchor at St 
Thomas. They were admitted and kindly received by the 
governor, and allowed to bring their plunder ashore/ 

' CS.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos - 7 6 9> 9 6 3> 993- 2 Ibid., Nos. 1065, 1313. 
3 Ibid., No. 1313. 4 Ibid., Nos. 1 190, 1216. 

235 






BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 



Three days later Captain Carlile of H.M.S. " Francis," who 
had been sent out by Governor Stapleton to hunt for 
pirates, sailed into the harbour, and on being assured 
by the pilot and by an English sloop lying at anchor 
there that the ship before him was the pirate " La 
Trompeuse," in the night of the following day he set 
her on fire and blew her up. Hamlin and some of 
the crew were on board, but after firing a few shots, 
escaped to the shore. The pirate ship carried thirty- 
two guns, and if she had not been under - manned 
Carlile might have encountered a formidable resistance. 
The Governor of St. Thomas sent a note of protest 
to Carlile for having, as he said, secretly set fire to 
a frigate which had been confiscated to the King of 
Denmark. 1 Nevertheless he sent Hamlin and his men 
for safety in a boat to another part of the island, and later 
selling him a sloop, let him sail away to join the French 
buccaneers in Hispaniola. 2 

The Danish governor of St. Thomas, whose name was 
Adolf Esmit, had formerly been himself a privateer, and 
had used his popularity on the island to eject from authority 
his brother Nicholas Esmit, the lawful governor. By pro- 
tecting and encouraging pirates — for a consideration, of 
course — he proved a bad neighbour to the surrounding 
English islands. Although he had but 300 or 350 people 
on St. Thomas, and most of these British subjects, he laid 
claim to all the Virgin Islands, harboured runaway servants, 
seamen and debtors, fitted out pirate vessels with arms and 
provisions, and refused to restore captured ships and crews 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, No. 1173. 

2 Ibid., Nos. 1 168, 1190, 1223, 1344; cf. also Nos. 1381, 1464, 1803. 
In June 1684 we learn that " Hamlin, captain of La Trompeuse, got into 

a ship of thirty-six guns on the coast of the Main last month, with sixty of his 
old crew and as many new men. They call themselves pirates, and their ship 
La Nouvelle Trompeuse, and talk of their old station at Isle de Vaches." 
{Ibid., No. 1759.) 

236 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

which the pirates brought into his port. 1 The King of 
Denmark had sent out a new governor, named Everson, to 
dispossess Esmit, but he did not arrive in the West Indies 
until October 1684, when with the assistance of an armed 
sloop which Sir William Stapleton had been ordered by 
the English Council to lend him, he took possession of 
St. Thomas and its pirate governor. 2 

A second difficulty encountered by Sir Thomas Lynch, 
in the first year of his return, was the privateering activity 
of Robert Clarke, Governor of New Providence, one of 
the Bahama Islands. Governor Clarke, on the plea 
of retaliating Spanish outrages, gave letters of marque 
to several privateers, including Coxon, the same famous 
chief who in 1680 had led the buccaneers into the South 
Seas. Coxon carried his commission to Jamaica and 
showed it to Governor Lynch, who was greatly incensed 
and wrote to Clarke a vigorous note of reproof.3 To grant 
such letters of marque was, of course, contrary to the 
Treaty of Madrid, and by giving the pirates only another 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos - 777. 1188, 1189, 1223, 1376, 1471-1474, 
1504, i535> 1537, 1731- 

3 Ibid., Nos. 1222, 1223, 1676, 1678, 1686, 1909 ; cf. also Nos. 1382, 
1547, 1665. 

3 Ibid., Nos. 552, 599, 668, 712. 
Coxon continued to vacillate between submission to the Governor of Jamaica 
and open rebellion. In October 1682 he was sent by Sir Thos. Lynch with 
three vessels to the Gulf of Honduras to fetch away the English logwood- 
cutters. "His men plotted to take the ship and go privateering, but he 
valiently resisted, killed one or two with his own hand, forced eleven over- 
board, and brought three here (Port Royal) who were condemned last Friday " 
(Ibid., No. 769. Letter of Sir Thos. Lynch, 6th Nov. 1682.) A year later, 
in November 1683, he had again reverted to piracy {ibid., No. 1348), but in 
January 1686 surrendered to Lieut. -Governor Molesworth and was ordered 
to be arrested and tried at St. Jago de la Vega (ibid., 1685-88, No. 548). 
He probably in the meantime succeeded in escaping from the island, for in the 
following November he was reported to be cutting logwood in the Gulf of 
Campeache, and Molesworth was issuing a proclamation declaring him an 
outlaw (ibid., No. 965). He remained abroad until September 1688 when he 
again surrendered to the Governor of Jamaica (ibid., No. 1890), and again by 
some hook or crook obtained his freedom. 

237 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

excuse for their actions, greatly complicated the task of 
the Governor of Jamaica. Lynch forwarded Coxon's com- 
mission to England, where in August 1682 the proprietors 
of the Bahama Islands were ordered to attend the council 
and answer for the misdeeds of their governor. 1 The 
proprietors, however, had already acted on their own 
initiative, for on 29th July they issued instructions to a new 
governor, Robert Lilburne, to arrest Clarke and keep him 
in custody till he should give security to answer accusations 
in England, and to recall all commissions against the 
Spaniards. 2 The whole trouble, it seems, had arisen over 
the wreck of a Spanish galleon in the Bahamas, to which 
Spaniards from St Augustine and Havana were accustomed 
to resort to fish for ingots of silver, and from which they 
had been driven away by the governor and inhabitants of 
New Providence. The Spaniards had retaliated by rob- 
bing vessels sailing to and from the Bahamas, whereupon 
Clarke, without considering the illegality of his action, had 
issued commissions of war to privateers. 

The Bahamas, however, were a favourite resort for 
pirates and other men of desperate character, and Lilburne 
soon discovered that his place was no sinecure. He found 
it difficult moreover to refrain from hostilities against a 
neighbour who used every opportunity to harm and plunder 
his colony. In March 1683, a former privateer named 
Thomas Pain 3 had entered into a conspiracy with four 
other captains, who were then fishing for silver at the wreck, 
to seize St. Augustine in Florida. They landed before the 
city under French colours, but finding the Spaniards 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 660, 673. 

2 Ibid., Nos. 627, 769. 

3 He is not to be confused with the Peter Paine who brought "La 
Trompeuse " to Port Royal. Thomas Pain, a few months before he arrived 
in the Bahamas, had come in and submitted to Sir Thomas Lynch, and had been 
sent out again by the governor to cruise after pirates. (C.S.P. Colon., 1681- 

85, Nos. 769, 1707.) 

238 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

prepared for them, gave up the project and looted some 
small neighbouring settlements. On the return of Pain 
and two others to New Providence, Governor Lilburne 
tried to apprehend them, but he failed for lack of 
means to enforce his authority. The Spaniards, however, 
were not slow to take their revenge. In the following 
January they sent 250 men from Havana, who in the early 
morning surprised and plundered the town and shipping 
at New Providence, killed three men, and carried away 
money and provisions to the value of ^"i^ooo. 1 When 
Lilburne in February sent to ask the Governor of Havana 
whether the plunderers had acted under his orders, the 
Spaniard not only acknowledged it but threatened further 
hostilities against the English settlement. Indeed, later 
in the same year the Spaniards returned, this time, it 
seems, without a commission, and according to report burnt 
all the houses, murdered the governor in cold blood, and 
carried many of the women, children and negroes to 
Havana. 2 About 200 of the inhabitants made their way to 
Jamaica, and a number of the men, thirsting for vengeance, 
joined the English pirates in the Carolinas. 3 

In French Hispaniola corsairing had been forbidden 
for several years, yet the French governor found the pro- 
blem of suppressing the evil even more difficult than it was 
in Jamaica. M. de Pouancay, the successor of d'Ogeron, 
died toward the end of 1682 or the beginning of 1683, an d 
in spite of his efforts to establish order in the colony he 
left it in a deplorable condition. The old fraternity of 
hunters or cow-killers had almost disappeared ; but the 
corsairs and the planters were strongly united, and galled 
by the oppression of the West India Company, displayed 
their strength in a spirit of indocility which caused great 
embarrassment to the governor. Although in time of 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 1509, 1540, 1590, 1924, 1926. 

2 Ibid., Nos. 1927, 1938. 3 Ibid., Nos. 1540, 1833. 

239 






BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

peace the freebooters kept the French settlements in con- 
tinual danger of ruin by reprisal, in time of war they were 
the mainstay of the colony. As the governor, therefore, 
was dependent upon them for protection against the 
English, Spanish and Dutch, although he withdrew their 
commissions he dared not punish them for their crimes 
The French buccaneers, indeed, occupied a curious and 
anomalous position. They were not ordinary privateers, 
for they waged war without authority ; and they were still 
less pirates, for they had never been declared outlaws, and 
they confined their attentions to the Spaniards. They 
served under conditions which they themselves imposed, 
or which they deigned to accept, and were always ready 
to turn against the representatives of authority if they 
believed they had aught of which to complain. 1 

The buccaneers almost invariably carried commissions 
from the governors of French Hispaniola, but they did 
not scruple to alter the wording of their papers, so that a 
permission to privateer for three months was easily trans- 
formed into a licence to plunder for three years. These 
papers, moreover, were passed about from one corsair to 
another, until long after the occasion for their issue had 
ceased to exist. Thus in May or June of 1680, de Gram 
mont, on the strength of an old commission granted him 
by de Pouancay before the treaty of Nimuegen, had made 
a brilliant night assault upon La Guayra, the seaport of 
Caracas. Of his 180 followers only forty-seven took part 
in the actual seizure of the town, which was amply pro- 
tected by two forts and by cannon upon the walls. On 
the following day, however, he received word that 2000 
men were approaching from Caracas, and as the enemy 

■ Charlevoix, op. cit., liv. viii. p. 130. In 1684 there were between 2000 
and 3000 filibusters who made their headquarters in French Hispaniola 
They had seventeen vessels at sea with batteries ranging from four to fifty 
guns. (C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, No. 668; Bibl. Nat., Nouv. Acq., 9325, 

i- 336-) 

240 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

were also rallying in force in the vicinity of the town he 
was compelled to retire to the ships. This movement was 
executed with difficulty, and for two hours de Grammont 
with a handful of his bravest companions covered the 
embarkation from the assaults of the Spaniards. Although 
he himself was dangerously wounded in the throat, he lost 
only eight or nine men in the whole action. He carried 
away with him the Governor of La Guayra and many other 
prisoners, but the booty was small. De Grammont retired 
to the Isle d'Aves to nurse his wound, and after a long 
convalescence returned to Petit Goave. 1 

In 1683, however, these filibusters of Hispaniola 
carried out a much larger design upon the coasts of New 
Spain. In April of that year eight buccaneer captains 
made a rendezvous in the Gulf of Honduras for the 
purpose of attacking Vera Cruz. The leaders of the party 
were two Dutchmen named Vanhorn and Laurens de 
Graff. Of the other six captains, three were Dutch, one 
was French, and two were English. Vanhorn himself had 
sailed from England in the autumn of 1681 in command 
of a merchant ship called the " Mary and Martha," alias 
the " St Nicholas.'" He soon, however, revealed the rogue 
he was by turning two of his merchants ashore at Cadiz 
and stealing four Spanish guns. He then sailed to the 
Canaries and to the coast of Guinea, plundering ships and 
stealing negroes, and finally, in November 1682, arrived at 
the city of San Domingo, where he tried to dispose of his 
black cargo. From San Domingo he made for Petit Goave 
picked up 300 men, and sailed to join Laurens in the Gull 
of Honduras. 2 Laurens, too, had distinguished himself but 
a short time before by capturing a Spanish ship bound 
from Havana for San Domingo and Porto Rico with about 
120,000 pieces of eight to pay off the soldiers. The free- 

* Charlevoix, op. cit., liv. viii. pp. 128-30. 
- C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 963, 998, 1065. 
16 241 






BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

booters had shared 700 pieces of eight per man, and carry 
ing their prize to Petit Goave had compounded with the 
French governor for a part of the booty. 1 

The buccaneers assembled near Cape Catoche to th 
number of about 1000 men, and sailed in the middle o 
May for Vera Cruz. Learning from some prisoners tha 
the Spaniards on shore were expecting two ships from 
Caracas, they crowded the landing party of about 800 
upon two of their vessels, displayed the Spanish 
colours, and stood in for the city. The unfortunate in- 
habitants mistook them for their own people, and even 
lighted fires to pilot them in. The pirates landed at mid 
night on 17th May about two miles from the town, and by 
daybreak had possession of the city and its forts. They 
found the soldiers and sentinels asleep, and " all the people 
in the houses as quiet and still as if in their graves." For 
four days they held the place, plundering the churches, 
houses and convents ; and not finding enough plate and 
jewels to meet their expectations, they threatened to burn 
the cathedral and all the prisoners within it, unless a 
ransom was brought in from the surrounding country. 
The governor, Don Luis de Cordova, was on the third 
day discovered by an Englishman hidden in the hay in a 
stable, and was ransomed for 70,000 pieces of eight. Mean- 
while the Spanish Flota of twelve or fourteen ships from 
Cadiz had for two days been lying outside the harbour 
and within sight of the city ; yet it did not venture to land 
or to attack the empty buccaneer vessels. The proximity 
of such an armament, however, made the freebooters un- 
easy, especially as the Spanish viceroy was approaching 
with an army from the direction of Mexico. On the fourth 
day, therefore, they sailed away in the very face of the 
Flota to a neighbouring cay, where they divided the pillage 
into a thousand or more shares of 800 pieces of eight each. 

' C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos, 709, 712. 
242 



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F.iOM CHARLEVOIX ' HISTOIRE DE S. DO.MINGL'E, I73O 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

Vanhorn alone is said to have received thirty shares for 
himself and his two ships. He and Laurens, who had 
never been on good terms, quarrelled and fought over the 
division, and Vanhorn was wounded in the wrist. The 
wound seemed very slight, however, and he proposed to 
return and attack the Spanish fleet, offering to board the 
| Admiral " himself; but Laurens refused, and the buccaneers 
sailed away, carrying with them over iooo slaves. The 
invaders, according to report, had lost but four men in the 
action. About a fortnight later Vanhorn died of gangrene 
in his wound, and de Grammont, who was then acting as 
his lieutenant, carried his ship back to Petit Goave, where 
Laurens and most of the other captains had already 
arrived. 1 

The Mexican fleet, which returned to Cadiz on 18th 
December, was only half its usual size because of the lack 
of a, market after the visit of the corsairs ; and the Governor 
of Vera Cruz was sentenced to lose his head for his remiss- 
ness in defending the city. 2 The Spanish ambassador in 
London, Ronquillo, requested Charles II. to command Sir 
Thomas Lynch to co-operate with a commissioner whom 
the Spanish Government was sending to the West Indies 
to inquire into this latest outrage of the buccaneers, and 
such orders were dispatched to Lynch in April 1684. 3 

M. de Cussy, who had been appointed by the French 

1 CS. P- Colon., 1681-85, No. 1 163; Charlevoix, liv. viii. p. 133; Narrative 
contained in "The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Barth. Sharpe and 
others in the South Sea." Lon. 1684. 

Governor Lynch wrote in July 1683: "All the governors in America 
have known of this very design for four or five months." Duro, quoting from 
a Spanish MS. in the Coleccion Navarrete, t. x. No. 33, says that the booty 
at Vera Cruz amounted to more than three million reales de plata in jewels 
and merchandise, for which the invaders demanded a ransom of 150,000 
pieces of eight. They also carried away, according to the account, 1300 
slaves. {Op. cit., v. p. 271.) A real de plata was one-eighth of a peso or 
. piece of eight. 

2 S.P. Spain, vol. 69, f. 339. 

3 Ibid., vol. 70, f. 57 ; C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, No. 1633. 

243 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

King to succeed his former colleague, de Pouangay, arrived 
at Petit Goave in April 1684, an d found the buccaneers on 
the point of open revolt because of the efforts of de 
Franquesnay, the temporary governor, to enforce the strict 
orders from France for their suppression. 1 De Cussy 
visited all parts of the colony, and by tact, patience and 
politic concessions succeeded in restoring order. He 
knew that in spite of the instructions from France, so long 
as he was surrounded by jealous neighbours, and so long 
as the peace in Europe remained precarious, the safety of 
French Hispaniola depended on his retaining the presence 
and good-will of the sea-rovers ; and when de Grammont 
and several other captains demanded commissions against 
the Spaniards, the governor finally consented on condition 
that they persuade all the freebooters driven away by 
de Franquesnay to return to the colony. Two com- 
missioners, named Begon and St. Laurent, arrived in 
August 1684 to aid him in reforming this dissolute 
society, but they soon came to the same conclusions as 
the governor, and sent a memoir to the French King 
advising less severe measures. The king did not agree 
with their suggestion of compromise, and de Cussy, com- 
pelled to deal harshly with the buccaneers, found his task 
by no means an easy one. 2 Meanwhile, however, many of 
the freebooters, seeing the determined attitude of the 

1 During de Franquesnay's short tenure of authority, Laurens, driven from 
Hispaniola by the stern measures of the governor against privateers, made it 
understood that he desired to enter the service of the Governor of Jamaica. 
The Privy Council empowered Lynch to treat with him, offering pardon and 
permission to settle on the island on giving security for his future good be- 
haviour. But de Cussy arrived in the meantime, reversed the policy of 
de Franquesnay, received Laurens with all the honour due to a military hero, 
and endeavoured to engage him in the services of the government (Charle- 
voix, op.cit., liv. viii. pp. 141, 202; C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 1210, 1249, 
1424, 1461, 1649, 1718 and 1839). 

- Charlevoix, op. cit., liv. viii. pp. 139-145; C.S.P. Colon., 1685-88, No. 

378. 

244 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

established authorities, decided to transfer their activities 
to the Pacific coasts of America, where they would be 
safe from interference on the part of the English or French 
Governments. The expedition of Harris, Coxon, Sharp and 
their associates across the isthmus in 1680 had kindled 
the imaginations of the buccaneers with the possibilities of 
greater plunder and adventure in these more distant 
regions. Other parties, both English and French, speedily 
followed in their tracks, and after 1683 it became the pre- 
vailing practice for buccaneers to make an excursion into 
the South Seas. The Darien Indians and their fiercer 
neighbours, the natives of the Mosquito Coast, who were 
usually at enmity with the Spaniards, allied themselves 
with the freebooters, and the latter, in their painful marches 
through the dense tropical wilderness of these regions, 
often owed it to the timely aid and friendly offices of the 
natives that they finally succeeded in reaching their goal. 

In the summer of 1685, a year after the arrival of de 
Cussy in Hispaniola, de Grammont and Laurens de 
Graff united their forces again at the Isle la Vache, and in 
spite of the efforts of the governor to persuade them to 
renounce their project, sailed with 1 100 men for the coasts 
of Campeache. An attempt on Merida was frustrated by 
the Spaniards, but Campeache itself was occupied after a 
feeble resistance, and remained in possession of the French 
for six weeks. After reducing the city to ashes and blow- 
ing up the fortress, the invaders retired to Hispaniola. 1 
According to Charlevoix, before the buccaneers sailed 
away they celebrated the festival of St. Louis by a huge 
bonfire in honour of the king, in which they burnt log- 
wood to the value of 200,000 crowns, representing the 
greater part of their booty. The Spaniards of Hispaniola, 
who kept up a constant desultory warfare with their 

1 Charlevoix, op. cit.., liv. ix. pp. 197-99; Duro., op. cit., v. pp. 273-74 ; 
CS.P. Colon., 1685-88, Nos. 193, 339, 378, 778. 

245 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

French neighbours, were incited by the ravages of the 
buccaneers in the South Seas, and by the sack of Vera 
Cruz and Campeache, to renewed hostilities ; and de Cussy, 
anxious to attach to himself so enterprising and daring a 
leader as de Grammont, obtained for him, in September 
1686, the commission of " Lieutenant de Roi " of the coast 
of San Domingo. Grammont, however, on learning of his 
new honour, wished to have a last fling at the Spaniards 
before he settled down to respectability. He armed a 
ship, sailed away with 180 men, and was never heard of 
again. 1 At the same time Laurens de Graff was given 
the title of " Major," and he lived to take an active part in 
the war against the English between 1689 an d 1697. 2 

These semi-pirates, whom the French governor dared 

1 According to Charlevoix, de Grammont was a native of Paris, entered 
the Royal Marine, and distinguished himself in several naval engagements. 
Finally he appeared in the West Indies as the commander of a frigate armed 
for privateering, and captured near Martinique a Dutch vessel worth 400,000 
livres. He carried his prize to Hispaniola, where he lost at the gaming 
table and consumed in debauchery the whole value of his capture ; and not 
daring to return to France he joined the buccaneers. 

2 ' ' Laurens-Cornille Baldran, sieur de Graff, lieutenant du roi en l'isle de 
Saint Domingue, capitaine de fregate legere, chevalier de Saint Louis " — so he 
was styled after entering the service of the French king ( Vaissiere, op cit. , p. 
70, note). According to Charlevoix he was a native of Holland, became a 
gunner in the Spanish navy, and for his skill and bravery was advanced to 
the post of commander of a vessel. He was sent to American waters, captured 
by the buccaneers, and joined their ranks. Such was the terror inspired by 
his name throughout all the Spanish coasts that in the public prayers in the 
churches Heaven was invoked to shield the inhabitants from his fury. 
Divorced from his first wife, whom he had married at Teneriffe in 1674, he 
was married again in March 1693 to a Norman or Breton woman named 
Marie- Anne Dieu-le-veult, the widow of one of the first inhabitants of Tortuga 
(ibid.). The story goes that Marie- Anne, thinking one day that she had been 
grievously insulted by Laurens, went in search of the buccaneer, pistol in 
hand, to demand an apology for the outrage. De Graff, judging this Amazon 
to be worthy of him, turned about and married her (Ducere, op. cit., p. 113, 
note). In October 1698 Laurens de Graff, in company with Iberville, sailed 
from Rochefort with two ships, and in Mobile and at the mouths of the 
Mississippi laid the foundations of Louisiana (Duro, op. cit., v. p. 306). De 
Graff died in May 1704. Cf. also Bibl. Nat., Nouv. Acq., 9325 f. 311. 

246 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

not openly support yet feared to disavow, were a constant 
source of trouble to the Governor of Jamaica. They did 
not scruple to attack English traders and fishing sloops, 
and when pursued took refuge in Petit Goave, the port in 
the cul-de-sac at the west end of Hispaniola which had long 
been a sanctuary of the freebooters, and which paid little 
respect to the authority of the royal governor. 1 In 
Jamaica they believed that the corsairs acted under regular 
commissions from the French authorities, and Sir Thomas 
Lynch sent repeated complaints to de Pouangay and to 
his successor. He also wrote to England begging the 
Council to ascertain from the French ambassador whether 
these governors had authority to issue commissions of 
war, so that his frigates might be able to distinguish be- 
tween the pirate and the lawful privateer. 2 Except at 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 1958, 1962, 1964, 1991, 2000. 

Dampier writes (1685) that "it hath been usual for many years past for 
the Governor of Petit Guaves to send blank Commissions to Sea by many of his 
Captains, with orders to dispose of them to whom they saw convenient. . . . 
I never read any of these French Commissions .... but I have learnt since 
that the Tenor of them is to give a Liberty to Fish, Fowl and Hunt. The 
Occasion of this is, that .... in time of Peace these Commissions are given 
as a Warrant to those of each side (i.e., French and Spanish in Hispaniola) 
to protect them from the adverse Party : But in effect the French do not 
restrain them to Hispaniola, but make them a pretence for a general ravage 
in any part of America, by Sea or Land." — Edition 1906, I. pp. 212-13. 

2 C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, N °s- 668, 769. 942, 948, 1281, 1562, 1759; ibid.. 
1685-88, No. 558. 

In a memoir of MM. de St. Laurent and Begon to the French King in 
February 1684, they report that in the previous year some French filibusters 
discovered in a patache captured from the Spaniards a letter from the Governor 
of Jamaica exhorting the Spaniards to make war on the French in Hispaniola, 
and promising them vessels and other means for entirely destroying the colony. 
This letter caused a furious outburst of resentment among the French settlers 
against the English (cf. also C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, No - 1348). Shortly 
after, according to the memoir, an English ship of 30 guns appeared for several 
days cruising in the channel between Tortuga and Port de Paix. The sieur 
de Franquesnay, on sending to ask for an explanation of this conduct, received 
a curt reply to the effect that the sea was free to everyone. The French 
governor thereupon sent a barque with 30 filibusters to attack the English- 
man, but the filibusters returned well beaten. In despair de Franquesnay 

247 






BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Petit Goave, however, the French were really desirous of 
preserving peace with Jamaica, and did what they could 
to satisfy the demands of the English without unduly 
irritating the buccaneers. They were in the same position 
as Lynch in 167 1, who, while anxious to do justice to the 
Spaniards, dared not immediately alienate the freebooters 
who plundered them, and who might, if driven away, turn 
their arms against Jamaica. Vanhorn himself, it seems, 
when he left Hispaniola to join Laurens in the Gulf of 
Honduras, had been sent out by de Pouancay really to 
pursue "La Trompeuse" and other pirates, and his 
lieutenant, de Grammont, delivered letters to Governor 
Lynch to that effect ; but once out of sight he steered 
directly for Central America, where he anticipated a more 
profitable game than pirate-hunting. 1 

On the 24th of August 1684 Sir Thomas Lynch died 
in Jamaica, and Colonel Hender Molesworth, by virtue 
of his commission as lieutenant-governor, assumed the 
authority. 2 Sir Henry Morgan, who had remained 
lieutenant-governor when Lynch returned to Jamaica, had 
afterwards been suspended from the council and from all 
other public employments on charges of drunkenness, dis- 
order, and encouraging disloyalty to the government. His 
brother-in-law, Byndloss, was dismissed for similar reasons, 
and Roger Elletson, who belonged to the same faction, 
was removed from his office as attorney-general of the 
island. Lynch had had the support of both the assembly 
and the council, and his actions were at once confirmed 

asked Captain de Grammont, who had just returned from a cruise in a ship of 
50 guns, to go out against the intruder. With 300 of the corsairs at his back 
de Grammont attacked the English frigate. The reception accorded by the 
latter was as vigorous as before, but the result was different, for de Grammont 
at once grappled with his antagonist, boarded her and put all the English 
except the captain to the sword. — Bibl. Nat., Nouv. Acq., 9325 f. 332. 

No reference to this incident is found in the English colonial records. 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, No. 963. 

* Ibid., Nos. 1844, 1852. 

248 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

in England. 1 The governor, however, although he had 
enjoyed the confidence of most of the inhabitants, who 
looked upon him as the saviour of the island, left behind 
in the persons of Morgan, Elletson and their roystering 
companions, a group of implacable enemies, who did all 
in their power to vilify his memory to the authorities in 
England. Several of these men, with Elletson at their 
head, accused the dead governor of embezzling piratical 
goods which had been confiscated to the use of the king ; 
but when inquiry was made by Lieutenant-Governor 
Molesworth, the charges fell to the ground. Elletson's 
information was found to be second-hand and defective, 
and Lynch's name was more than vindicated. Indeed, the 
governor at his death had so little ready means that his 
widow was compelled to borrow £500 to pay for his 
funeral. 2 

The last years of Sir Thomas Lynch's life had been 
troublous ones. Not only had the peace of the island 
been disturbed by "La Trompeuse" and other French 
corsairs which hovered about Hispaniola ; not only had 
his days been embittered by strife with a small, drunken, 
insolent faction which tried to belittle his attempts to 
introduce order and sobriety into the colony ; but the 
hostility of the Spanish governors in the West Indies 
still continued to neutralize his efforts to root out 
buccaneering. Lynch had in reality been the best friend 
of the Spaniards in America. He had strictly forbidden 
the cutting of logwood in Campeache and Honduras, 
when the Spaniards were outraging and enslaving every 
Englishman they found upon those coasts ; 3 he had sent 
word to the Spanish governors of the intended sack of 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 1246, 1249, 1250, 1294, 1295, 1302, 1311, 
1348, 1489, 1502, 1503, 1510, 1562, 1563, 1565. 

2 Ibid., No. 1938; ibid., 1685-88, Nos. ^s, 53, 57, 68, 128, 129, 157. 

3 Ibid, 1681-85, Nos. 668, 769 ; ibid., 1685-88, No. 986. 

249 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Vera Cruz ; * he had protected Spanish merchant ships 
with his own men-of-war and hospitably received them 
in Jamaican ports. Yet Spanish corsairs continued to 
rob English vessels, and Spanish governors refused to 
surrender English ships and goods which were carried into 
their ports. 2 On the plea of punishing interlopers they 
armed small galleys and ordered them to take all ships 
which had on board any products of the Indies. 3 Letters 
to the governors at Havana and St. Jago de Cuba were of 
no avail. English trade routes were interrupted and 
dangerous, the turtling, trading and fishing sloops, which 
supplied a great part of the food of Jamaica, were robbed 
and seized, and Lynch was compelled to construct a galley 
of fifty oars for their protection.* Pirates, it is true, were 
frequently brought into Port Royal by the small frigates 
employed by the governor, and there were numerous 
executions ; 5 yet the outlaws seemed to increase daily. 
Some black vessel was generally found hovering about the 
island ready to pick up any who wished to join it, and 
when the runaways were prevented from returning by the 
statute against piracy, they retired to the Carolinas or to 
New England to dispose of their loot and refit their 
ships. 6 When such retreats were available the laws 
against piracy did not reduce buccaneering so much as 
they depopulated Jamaica of its white inhabitants. 

After 1680, indeed, the North American colonies 
became more and more the resort of the pirates who were 
being driven from West Indian waters by the stern 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, N °s- 1163, 1198: Bibl. Nat, Nouv. Acq., 

9325, f- S3* 

2 C.S. P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 1796,1854, 1855, 1943; ibid., 1685-88, 
Nos. 218, 269, 569, 591, 609, 706, 739. 

3 Ibid., 1681-85, Nos. 1163, 1198, T249, 1630. 
« Ibid., Nos. 963, 992, 1938, 1949, 2025, 2067. 
5 Ibid., Nos. 963, 992, 1759. 

h Ibid., Nos. 1259, 1563. 

250 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

measures of the English governors. Michel Landresson, 
alias Breha, who had accompanied Pain in his expedition 
against St. Augustine in 1683, an d who had been a con- 
stant source of worriment to the Jamaicans because of his 
attacks on the fishing sloops, sailed to Boston and dis- 
posed of his booty of gold, silver, jewels and cocoa to the 
godly New England merchants, who were only too ready 
to take advantage of so profitable a trade and gladly fitted 
him out for another cruise. 1 Pain himself appeared in 
Rhode Island, displayed the old commission to hunt for 
pirates given him by Sir Thomas Lynch, and was pro- 
tected by the governor against the deputy-collector of 
customs, who endeavoured to seize him and his ship. 2 
The chief resort of the pirates, however, was the colony of 
Carolina. Indented by numerous harbours and inlets, the 
shores of Carolina had always afforded a safe refuge for 
refitting and repairing after a cruise, and from 1670 
onwards, when the region began to be settled by colonists 
from England, the pirates found in the new communities a 
second Jamaica, where they could sell their cargoes and 
often recruit their forces. In the latter part of 1683 Sir 
Thomas Lynch complained to the Lords of the Com- 
mittee for Trade and Plantations ; 3 and in February of 
the following year the king, at the suggestion of the 
committee, ordered that a draft of the Jamaican law 
against pirates be sent to all the plantations in America, 
to be passed and enforced in each as a statute of the 

1 CS.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 1845, l8 5 x ' l862 » 20 42- 

His ship is called in these letters "La Trompeuse." Unless this is a 
confusion with Hamlin's vessel, there must have been more than one "La 
Trompeuse" in the West Indies. Very likely the fame or ill-fame of the 
original " La Trompeuse " led other pirate captains to flatter themselves by 
adopting the same name. Breha was captured in 1686 by the Armada de 
Barlovento and hung with nine or ten of his companions (Charlevoix, 
op. cit., liv. ix. p. 207). 

- Ibid., Nos. 1299, 1862. 

' Ibid., No. 1249. 

251 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

province. 1 On 12th March 1684 a general proclamation 
was issued by the king against pirates in America, and a 
copy forwarded to all the colonial governors for publica- 
tion and execution. 2 Nevertheless in Massachusetts, in 
spite of these measures and of a letter from the king 
warning the governors to give no succour or aid to any 
of the outlaws, Michel had been received with open arms, 
the proclamation of 12th March was torn down in the 
streets, and the Jamaica Act, though passed, was never 
enforced. 3 In the Carolinas, although the Lords 
Proprietors wrote urging the governors to take every 
care that no pirates were entertained in the colony, the 
Act was not passed until November 1685. 4 There were 
few, if any, convictions, and the freebooters plied their 
trade with the same security as before. Toward the end 
of 1686 three galleys from St. Augustine landed about 
150 men, Spaniards, Indians and mulattos, a few leagues 
below Charleston, and laid waste several plantations, 
including that of Governor Moreton. The enemy pushed 
on to Port Royal, completely destroyed the Scotch colony 
there, and retired before a force could be raised to oppose 
them. To avenge this inroad the inhabitants immediately 
began preparations for a descent upon St. Augustine ; and 
an expedition consisting of two French privateering 
vessels and about 500 men was organized and about to 
sail, when a new governor, James Colleton, arrived and 
ordered it to disband. 5 Colleton was instructed to arrest 
Governor Moreton on the charge of encouraging piracy, 
and to punish those who entertained and abetted the 
freebooters; 6 and on 12th February 1687 he had a new 
and more explicit law to suppress the evil enacted by 

' C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 1560, 1561. 2 Ibid., Nos. 1605, 1862. 

3 Ibid., Nos. 1634, 1845, 1851, 1862. 

« Ibid., 1685-88, Nos. 363, 364, 639, 1164. 

5 Ibid., Nos. 1029, 1 161 ; Hughson : Carolina Pirates, p. 24. 

6 Ibid., 1681-85, No. 1 165. 

252 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

the assembly. 1 On 22nd May of the same year James 
II. renewed the proclamation for the suppression of 
pirates, and offered pardon to all who surrendered within 
a limited time and gave security for future good 
behaviour. 2 The situation was so serious, however, that 
in August the king commissioned Sir Robert Holmes to 
proceed with a squadron to the West Indies and make 
short work of the outlaws ; s and in October he issued a 
circular to all the governors in the colonies, direct- 
ing the most stringent enforcement of the laws, "a 
practice having grown up of bringing pirates to trial 
before the evidence was ready, and of using other 
evasions to insure their acquittal." 4 On the following 
20th January another proclamation was issued by James 
to insure the co-operation of the governors with Sir 
Robert Holmes and his agents. 5 The problem, however, 
was more difficult than the king had anticipated. The 
presence of the fleet upon the coast stopped the evil for a 
time, but a few years later, especially in the Carolinas 
under the administration of Governor Ludwell (1691- 
1693), the pirates again increased in numbers and in 
boldness, and Charleston was completely overrun with the 
freebooters, who, with the connivance of the merchants 
and a free display of gold, set the law at defiance. 

In Jamaica Lieutenant - Governor Molesworth con- 
tinued in the policy and spirit of his predecessor. He 
sent a frigate to the Bay of Darien to visit Golden Isle 
and the Isle of Pines (where the buccaneers were 
accustomed to make their rendezvous when they crossed 
over to the South Seas), with orders to destroy any piratical 
craft in that vicinity, and he made every exertion to 

1 Hughson, op. cit. p. 22. 

2 C.S.P. Colon., I685-SS, Nos. 1277, 1278. 

3 Ibid., No. 141 1. * Ibid., No. 1463. 
5 Ibid., No. 1602; cf. also ibid., 1693-96, No. 2243. 

253 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

prevent recruits from leaving Jamaica. 1 The stragglers 
who returned from the South Seas he arrested and 
executed, and he dealt severely with those who received 
and entertained them. 2 By virtue of the king's proclama- 
tion of 1684, he had the property in Port Royal belonging 
to men then in the South Seas forfeited to the crown. 3 A 
Captain Bannister, who in June 1684 had run away from 
Port Royal on a privateering venture with a ship of thirty 
guns, had been caught and brought back by the frigate 
" Ruby," but when put on trial for piracy was released by 
the grand jury on a technicality. Six months later 
Bannister managed to elude the forts a second time, and 
for two years kept dodging the frigates which Molesworth 
sent in pursuit of him. Finally, in January 1687, Captain 
Spragge sailed into Port Royal with the buccaneer and 
three of his companions hanging at the yard-arms, "a 
spectacle of great satisfaction to all good people, and of 
terror to the favourers of pirates." 4 It was during the 
government of Molesworth that the "Biscayners" began 
to appear in American waters. These privateers from the 
Bay of Biscay seem to have been taken into the King of 
Spain's service to hunt pirates, but they interrupted 
English trade more than the pirates did. They captured 
and plundered English merchantmen right and left, and 
carried them to Cartagena, Vera Cruz, San Domingo and 
other Spanish ports, where the governors took charge of 
their prisoners and allowed them to dispose of their 
captured goods. They held their commissions, it seems, 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1685-88, Nos. 116, 269, 805. 

2 Ibid., Nos. 1066, 1212. 

3 Ibid., Nos. 965, 1066, 1 128. 

4 Ibid., 1681-85, Nos - J 759> l8 5 2 > 2067; ibid., 1685-88, No. 1127 and 
cf. Index. 

For the careers of John Williams {alias Yankey) and Jacob Everson 
(alias Jacobs) during these years cf. C.S.P. Colon., 1685-88, Nos. 259, 348, 
897, 1449, 1476-7, 1624, 1705, 1877 ; Hist. MSS. Comm., xi. pt. 5, p. 136 
(Earl of Dartmouth's MSS.). 

254 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

directly from the Crown, and so pretended to be outside 
the pale of the authority of the Spanish governors. The 
latter, at any rate, declared that they could give no 
redress, and themselves complained to the authorities in 
Jamaica of the independence of these marauders. 1 In 
December 1688 the king issued a warrant to the 
Governor of Jamaica authorizing him to suppress the 
Biscayans with the royal frigates. 2 

On 28th October 1685 the governorship of the island 
was assigned to Sir Philip Howard, 3 but Howard died 
shortly after, and the Duke of Albemarle was appointed 
in his stead.* Albemarle, who arrived at Port Royal in 
December i687, s completely reversed the policy of his 
predecessors, Lynch and Molesworth. Even before he 
left England he had undermined his health by his intem- 
perate habits, and when he came to Jamaica he leagued 
himself with the most unruly and debauched men in the 
colony. He seems to have had no object but to increase 
his fortune at the expense of the island. Before he sailed 
he had boldly petitioned for powers to dispose of money 
without the advice and consent of his council, and, if he 
saw fit, to reinstate into office Sir Henry Morgan and 
Robert Byndloss. The king, however, decided that the 
suspension of Morgan and Byndloss should remain until 
Albemarle had reported on their case from Jamaica. 6 
When the Duke entered upon his new government, he 
immediately appointed Roger Elletson to be Chief Justice 
of the island in the place of Samuel Bernard. Three 
assistant-judges of the Supreme Court thereupon resigned 
their positions on the bench, and one was, in revenge, 

1 CS.P. Colon.. 1685-88, Nos. 1406, 1656, 1670, 1705, 1723, 1733; ibid., 
1689-92. Nos. 52, 515 ; Hist. MSS. Commiss., xi. pt. 5, p. 136. 

2 CS.P. Colon., 1685-88, No. 1959. 

1 Ibid., No. 433. 4 Ibid., Nos. 706, 1026. 

5 Ibid., No. 1567. 

6 Ibid. , Nos. 758, 920, 927 930. iooi, 1187, I2IO. 

255 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

dismissed by the governor from the council. Several other 
councillors were also suspended, contrary to the governor's 
instructions against arbitrary dismissal of such officers, and 
on 1 8th January 1688 Sir Henry Morgan, upon the king's 
approval of the Duke's recommendation, was re-admitted 
to the council-chamber. 1 The old buccaneer, however, did 
not long enjoy his restored dignity. About a month later 
he succumbed to a sharp illness, and on 26th August was 
buried in St. Catherine's Church in Port Royal. 2 

In November 1688 a petition was presented to the 
king by the planters and merchants trading to Jamaica 
protesting against the new regime introduced by Lord 
Albemarle : — " The once flourishing island of Jamaica is 
likely to be utterly undone by the irregularities of some 
needy persons lately set in power. Many of the most 
considerable inhabitants are deserting it, others are under 
severe fines and imprisonments from little or no cause . . . 
The provost-marshal has been dismissed and an indebted 
person put in his place ; and all the most substantial 
officers, civil and military, have been turned out and 
necessitous persons set up in their room. The like has been 
done in the judicial offices, whereby the benefit of appeals 
and prohibitions is rendered useless. Councillors are 
suspended without royal order and without a hearing. 
Several persons have been forced to give security not to 
leave the island lest they should seek redress ; others have 
been brought before the council for trifling offences and 
innumerable fees taken from them ; money has been 
raised twenty per cent, over its value to defend creditors. 
Lastly, the elections have been tampered with by the 
indebted provost - marshal, and since the Duke of 
Albemarle's death are continued without your royal 

1 CS.P. Colon., 1685-88, Nos. 1567, 1646, 1655, 1656, 1659, 1663, 1721, 

1838, 1858. 

2 Diet, of Nat. Biog. 

256 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

authority." r The death of Albemarle, indeed, at this 
opportune time was the greatest service he rendered to 
the colony. Molesworth was immediately commanded to 
return to Jamaica and resume authority. The duke's 
system was entirely reversed, and the government restored 
as it had been under the administration of Sir Thomas 
Lynch. Elletson was removed from the council and from 
his position as chief justice, and Bernard returned in his 
former place. All of the rest of Albemarle's creatures were 
dismissed from their posts, and the supporters of Lynch's 
regime again put in control of a majority in the council. 2 
This measure of plain justice was one of the last acts of 
James II. as King of England. On 5th November 1688 
William of Orange landed in England at Torbay, and on 
22nd December James escaped to France to live as a 
pensioner of Louis XIV. The new king almost immedi- 
ately wrote to Jamaica confirming the reappointment of 
Molesworth, and a commission to the latter was issued on 
25th July 1689. 3 Molesworth, unfortunately for the colony, 
died within a few days,* and the Earl of Inchiquin was 
appointed on 19th September to succeed him. 5 Sir Francis 
Watson, President of the Council in Jamaica, obeyed the 
instructions of William III., although he was a partizan of 
Albemarle ; yet so high was the feeling between the two 
factions that the greatest confusion reigned in the govern- 
ment of the island until the arrival of Inchiquin in May 
1690. 6 

The Revolution of 1688, by placing William of Orange 
on the English throne, added a powerful kingdom to the 
European coalition which in 1689 attacked Louis XIV. 
over the question of the succession of the Palatinate. That 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1685-88, No. 1941 5 cf. also 1906. 

2 Ibid., No. 1940. 3 Ibid., 1689-92, Nos. 6, 29, 292. 
4 Ibid., No. 299. 5 Ibid., No. 493. 

6 Ibid., Nos. 7, 50, 52, 54, 85, 120, 176-178, 293, 296-299, 514, 515, 874, 
880, 980. 1 04 1. 

17 257 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

James II. should accept the hospitality of the French 
monarch and use France as a basis for attack on England 
and Ireland was, quite apart from William's sympathy 
with the Protestants on the Continent, sufficient cause for 
hostilities against France. War broke out in May 1689, 
and was soon reflected in the English and French colonies 
in the West Indies. De Cussy, in Hispaniola, led an 
expedition of 1000 men, many of them filibusters, against 
St. Jago de los Cavalleros in the interior of the island, and 
took and burnt the town. In revenge the Spaniards, 
supported by an English fleet which had just driven the 
French from St. Kitts, appeared in January 1691 before 
Cap Francois, defeated and killed de Cussy in an engage- 
ment near the town, and burned and sacked the settlement. 
Three hundred French filibusters were killed in the battle. 
The English fleet visited Leogane and Petit Goave in the 
cul-de-sac of Hispaniola, and then sailed to Jamaica. De 
Cussy before his death had seized the opportunity to 
provide the freebooters with new commissions for privateer- 
ing, and English shipping suffered severely. 1 Laurens 
with 200 men touched at Montego Bay on the north coast 
in October, and threatened to return and plunder the 
whole north side of the island. The people were so 
frightened that they sent their wives and children to Port 
Royal ; and the council armed several vessels to go in 
pursuit of the Frenchmen. 2 It was a new experience to 
feel the danger of invasion by a foreign foe. The Jamaicans 
had an insight into the terror which their Spanish neigh- 
bours felt for the buccaneers, whom the English islanders 
had always been so ready to fit out, or to shield from the 
arm of the law. Laurens in the meantime was as good as 
his word. He returned to Jamaica in the beginning of 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1689-92, Nos. 293, 467; Ibid., 1693-96, Nos. 1931, vii., 

1934- 

2 Ibid., 1689-92, Nos. 515, 616, 635, 769. 

258 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

December with several vessels, seized eight or ten English 
trading sloops, landed on the north shore and plundered a 
plantation. 1 War with France was formally proclaimed in 
Jamaica on the 13th of January 1690. 2 

Two years later, in January 1692, Lord Inchiquin 
also succumbed to disease in Jamaica, and in the follow- 
ing June Colonel William Beeston was chosen by the 
queen to act as lieutenant-governor. 3 Inchiquin before 
he left England had solicited for the power to call in and 
pardon pirates, so as to strengthen the island during the 
war by adding to its forces men who would make good 
fighters on both land and sea. The Committee on Trade 
and Plantations reported favourably on the proposal, but 
the power seems never to have been granted. 4 In January 
1692, however, the President of the Council of Jamaica 
began to issue commissions to privateers, and in a few 
months the surrounding seas were full of armed Jamaican 
sloops. 5 On 7th June of the same year the colony 
suffered a disaster which almost proved its destruction. 
A terrible earthquake overwhelmed Port Royal and "in 
ten minutes threw down all the churches, dwelling-houses 
and sugar-works in the island. Two-thirds of Port Royal 
were swallowed up by the sea, all the forts and fortifica- 
tions demolished and great part of its inhabitants miser- 
ably knocked on the head or drowned." 6 The French in 
Hispaniola took advantage of the distress caused by the 
earthquake to invade the island, and nearly every week 
hostile bands landed and plundered the coast of negroes 
and other property. 7 In December 1693 a party of 170 

' C.S.P. Colon., 16S9-92, Nos. 873, 980, 1021, 1041. 

2 Ibid., No. 714. 

3 Ibid., Nos. 2034, 2043, 2269, 2496, 2498, 2641, 2643. 
* Ibid., Nos. 72-76, 2034. 

s Ibid., Nos. 2034, 2044, 2047. 2052, 2103. 
' Ibid., Nos. 2278, 2398, 2416, 2500. 
1 Ibid., 1693-96, Nos. 634, 635, 1009, 1236. 
259 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

swooped down in the night upon St. Davids, only seven 
leagues from Port Royal, plundered the whole parish, and 
got away again with 370 slaves. 1 In the following April 
Ducasse, the new French governor of Hispaniola, sent 
400 buccaneers in six small vessels to repeat the exploit, 
but the marauders met an English man-of-war guarding 
the coast, and concluding "that they would only get 
broken bones and spoil their men for any other design," 
they retired whence they had come. 2 Two months later, 
however, a much more serious incursion was made. An 
expedition of twenty-two vessels and 1500 men, recruited in 
France and instigated, it is said, by Irish and Jacobite re- 
fugees, set sail under Ducasse on 8th June with the inten- 
tion of conquering the whole of Jamaica. The French 
landed at Point Morant and Cow Bay, and for a month 
cruelly desolated the whole south-eastern portion of the 
island. Then coasting along the southern shore they made 
a feint on Port Royal, and landed in Carlisle Bay to the 
west of the capital. After driving from their breastworks 
the English force of 250 men, they again fell to ravaging 
and burning, but finding they could make no headway 
against the Jamaican militia, who were now increased to 
700 men, in the latter part of July they set sail with their 
plunder for Hispaniola. 3 Jamaica had been denuded of 
men by the earthquake and by sickness, and Lieutenant- 
Governor Beeston had wisely abandoned the forts in the 
east of the island and concentrated all his strength at 
Port Royal. 4 It was this expedient which doubtless 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1693-96, Nos. 778, 876; Archives Coloniales, Corresp. 
Gen. de St. Dom. III. Letter of Ducasse, 30 March 1694. 

* C.S.P. Colon., 1693-96, Nos. 1109, 1236 (i.). 

3 Hid., Nos. 1074, 1083, 1106, 1109, 1114, 1121, 1131, 1194, 1236; 
Charlevoix, 1. x. p. 256 ff.% Stowe MSS., 305 f., 205 b; Ducere : Les 
corsaires sous l'ancien regime, p. 142. 

* The number of white men on the island at this time was variously 

estimated from 2000 to 2400 men. (C.S.P. Colon., 1693-96, Nos. 1109 

and 1258.) 

260 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

saved the island from capture, for Ducasse feared to attack 
the united Jamaican forces behind strong intrenchments. 
The harm done to Jamaica by the invasion, however, was 
very great. The French wholly destroyed fifty sugar 
works and many plantations, burnt and plundered about 
200 houses, and killed every living thing they found. 
Thirteen hundred negroes were carried off besides other 
spoil. In fighting the Jamaicans lost about 100 killed and 
wounded, but the loss of the French seems to have been 
several times that number. After the French returned 
home Ducasse reserved all the negroes for himself, and 
many of the freebooters who had taken part in the ex- 
pedition, exasperated by such a division of the spoil, de- 
serted the governor and resorted to buccaneering on their 
own account. 1 

Colonel, now become Sir William, Beeston, from his 
first arrival in Jamaica as lieutenant-governor, had fixed 
his hopes upon a joint expedition with the Spaniards 
against the French at Petit Goave ; but the inertia of the 
Spaniards, and the loss of men and money caused by the 
earthquake, had prevented his plans from being realized. 2 
In the early part of 1695, however, an army of 1700 
soldiers on a fleet of twenty - three ships sailed from 
England under command of Commodore Wilmot for the 
West Indies. Uniting with 1500 Spaniards from San 
Domingo and the Barlovento fleet of three sail, they 
captured and sacked Cap Francois and Port de Paix in 
the French end of the island. It had been the intention 
of the allies to proceed to the cul-de-sac and destroy 
Petit Goave and Leogane, but they had lost many men by 
sickness and bad management, and the Spaniards, satis- 
fied with the booty already obtained, were anxious to 
return home. So the English fleet sailed away to Port 

1 C.S.P. Colon, 1693-96, No. 1516. 

2 Ibid. , Nos. 207, 876, 1004. 

261 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Royal. 1 These hostilities so exhausted both the French 
in Hispaniola and the English in Jamaica that for a time 
the combatants lay back to recover their strength. 

The last great expedition of this war in the West 
Indies serves as a fitting close to the history of the 
buccaneers. On 26th September 1696 Ducasse received 
from the French Minister of Marine, Pontchartrain, a 
letter informing him that the king had agreed to the 
project of a large armament which the Sieur de Pointis, 
aided by private capital, was preparing for an enterprise in 
the Mexican Gulf. 2 Ducasse, although six years earlier he 
had written home urging just such an enterprise against 
Vera Cruz or Cartagena, now expressed his strong disap- 
proval of the project, and dwelt rather on the advantages 
to be gained by the capture of Spanish Hispaniola, a 
conquest which would give the French the key to the 
Indies. A second letter from Pontchartrain in January 
1697, however, ordered him to aid de Pointis by uniting 
all the freebooters and keeping them in the colony till 
15th February. It was a difficult task to maintain the 
buccaneers in idleness for two months and prohibit all 
cruising, especially as de Pointis, who sailed from Brest in 
the beginning of January, did not reach Petit Goave till 
about 1st March. 3 The buccaneers murmured and 
threatened to disband, and it required all the personal as- 
cendancy of Ducasse to hold them together. The Sieur 
de Pointis, although a man of experience and resource, 
capable of forming a large design and sparing nothing to 

1 C.S.P. Colon., 1693-96, Nos. 1946, 1973, 1974, 1980, 1983, 2022. Accord- 
ing to Charlevoix, it was the dalliance and cowardice of Laurens de Graff, who 
was in command at Cap Francois, and feared falling into the hands of his old 
enemies the English and Spaniards, which had much to do with the success 
of the invasion. After the departure of the allies Laurens was deprived of 
his post and made captain of a light corvette. (Charlevoix, 1. x. p. 266 ff.) 

2 Ducere, op. cit. p. 148. 

3 Narrative of de Pointis. 

262 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

its success, suffered from two very common faults — vanity 
and avarice. He sometimes allowed the sense of his own 
merits to blind him to the merits of others, and considera- 
tions of self-interest to dim the brilliance of his achieve- 
ments. Of Ducasse he was insanely jealous, and during 
the whole expedition he tried in every way to humiliate 
him. Unable to bring himself to conciliate the unruly 
spirit of the buccaneers, he told them plainly that he would 
lead them not as a companion in fortune but as a military 
superior, and that they must submit themselves to the 
same rules as the men on the king's ships. The free- 
booters rebelled under the haughtiness of their com- 
mander, and only Ducasse's influence was able to bring 
them to obedience. 1 On 18th March the ships were all 
gathered at the rendezvous at Cape Tiburon, and on the 
1 3th of the following month anchored two leagues to the 
east of Cartagena. 2 De Pointis had under his command 
about 4000 men, half of them seamen, the rest soldiers. 
The reinforcements he had received from Ducasse 
numbered iroo, and of these 650 were buccaneers com- 
manded by Ducasse himself. He had nine frigates, 
besides seven vessels belonging to the buccaneers, and 
numerous smaller boats. 3 The appearance of so formid- 
able an armament in the West Indies caused a great deal 
of concern both in England and in Jamaica. Martial law 
was proclaimed in the colony and every means taken to 
put Port Royal in a state of defence. 4 Governor Beeston, 
at the first news of de Pointis' fleet, sent advice to the 
governors of Porto Bello and Havana, against whom he 
suspected that the expedition was intended. 5 A squadron 
of thirteen vessels was sent out from England under 

1 Narrative of de Pointis; C.S.P. Colon., 1696-97, No. 824. 

2 Narrative of de Pointis ; C.S.P. Colon., 1696-97, No. 868. 

3 Narrative of de Pointis 

* C.S.P. Colon., 1696-97, Nos. 373*376, 4*3* 661, 769. 
$ Ibid., Nos. 715, S68. 

263 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

command of Admiral Nevill to protect the British islands 
and the Spanish treasure fleets, for both the galleons and 
the Flota were then in the Indies. 1 Nevill touched at 
Barbadoes on 17th April, 2 and then sailed up through the 
Leeward Islands towards Hispaniola in search of de 
Pointis. The Frenchman, however, had eluded him and 
was already before Cartagena. 

Cartagena, situated at the eastward end of a large 
double lagoon, was perhaps the strongest fortress in the 
Indies, and the Spaniards within opposed a courageous 
defence. 3 After a fortnight of fighting and bombardment, 
however, on the last day of April the outworks were 
carried by a brilliant assault, and on 6th May the small 
Spanish garrison, followed by the Cabildo or municipal 
corporation, and by many of the citizens of the town, in all 
about 2800 persons, marched out with the honours of war. 
Although the Spaniards had been warned of the coming of 
the French, and before their arrival had succeeded in 
withdrawing the women and some of their riches to 
Mompos in the interior, the treasure which fell into the 
hands of the invaders was enormous, and has been vari- 
ously estimated at from six million crowns to twenty 
millions sterling. Trouble soon broke out between de 
Pointis and the buccaneers, for the latter wanted the 
whole of the plunder to be divided equally among the 

1 C.S.P. Colon, 1696-97, Nos. 375, 453. 

1 Ibid., 944, 978. 

3 The mouth of the harbour, called Boca Chica, was defended by a fort 
with 4 bastions and 33 guns ; but the guns were badly mounted on flimsy 
carriages of cedar, and were manned by only 15 soldiers. Inside the harbour 
was another fort called Santa Cruz, well-built with 4 bastions and a moat, but 
provided with only a few iron guns and without a garrison. Two other 
forts formed part of the exterior works of the town, but they had neither 
garrison nor guns, The city itself was surrounded by solid walls of stone, 
with 12 bastions and 84 brass cannon, to man which there was a company of 
40 soldiers. Such was the war footing on which the Spanish Government 
maintained the " Key of the Indies." (Duro, op. cit., v. p. 287.) 

264 




FROM BARON DE l'ONTIS' "RELATION DE CE QUI C 




IT LA PRISE DE CARTHAGENE, BRUXELLES, U 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

men, as had always been their custom, and they expected, 
according to this arrangement, says de Pointis in his 
narrative, about a quarter of all the booty. De Pointis, 
however, insisted upon the order which he had published 
before the expedition sailed from Petit Goave, that the 
buccaneers should be subject to the same rule in the 
division of the spoil as the sailors in the fleet, i.e., they 
should receive one-tenth of the first million and one- 
thirtieth of the rest. Moreover, fearing that the buc- 
caneers would take matters into their own hands, he had 
excluded them from the city while his officers gathered 
the plunder and carried it to the ships. On the repeated 
remonstrances of Ducasse, de Pointis finally announced 
that the share allotted to the men from Hispaniola was 
40,000 crowns. The buccaneers, finding themselves so 
miserably cheated, broke out into open mutiny, but were 
restrained by the influence of their leader and the presence 
of the king's frigates. De Pointis, meanwhile, seeing his 
own men decimated by sickness, put all the captured 
guns on board the fleet and made haste to get under sail 
for France. South of Jamaica he fell in with the squadron 
of Admiral Nevill, to which in the meantime had been 
joined some eight Dutch men-of-war ; but de Pointis, 
although inferior in numbers, outsailed the English ships 
and lost but one or two of his smaller vessels. He then 
manoeuvred past Cape S. Antonio, round the north of 
Cuba and through the Bahama Channel to Newfoundland, 
where he stopped for fresh wood and water, and after a brush 
with a small English squadron under Commodore Norris, 
sailed into the harbour of Brest on 19th August 1697. 1 

The buccaneers, even before de Pointis sailed for 
France, had turned their ships back toward Cartagena to 
reimburse themselves by again plundering the city. De 

'Narrative of de Pointis. Cf. Charlevoix, op cit., liv. xi. , for the best 
account of the whole expedition. 

265 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Pointis, indeed, was then very ill, and his officers were in 
no condition to oppose them. After the fleet had departed 
the freebooters re-entered Cartagena, and for four days put 
it to the sack, extorting from the unfortunate citizens, and 
from the churches and monasteries, several million more 
in gold and silver. Embarking for the Isle la Vache, 
they had covered but thirty leagues when they met with 
the same allied fleet which had pursued de Pointis. Of 
the nine buccaneer vessels, the two which carried most of 
the booty were captured, two more were driven ashore, and 
the rest succeeded in escaping to Hispaniola. Ducasse, 
who had returned to Petit Goave when de Pointis sailed 
for France, sent one of his lieutenants on a mission to the 
French Court to complain of the ill-treatment he had 
received from de Pointis, and to demand his own recall ; 
but the king pacified him by making him a Chevalier of 
St. Louis, and allotting 1,400,000 francs to the French 
colonists who had aided in the expedition. The money, 
however, was slow in reaching the hands of those to whom 
it was due, and much was lost through the malversations 
of the men charged with its distribution. 1 

With the capture of Cartagena in 1697 the history of 
the buccaneers may be said to end. More and more 
during the previous twenty years they had degenerated 
into mere pirates, or had left their libertine life for more 
civilised pursuits. Since 1671 the English government 
had been consistent in its policy of suppressing the free- 

1 Charlevoix, op. cit., liv. xi. p. 352. 

In one of the articles of capitulation which the Governor of Cartagena 
obtained from de Pointis, the latter promised to leave untouched the plate, 
jewels and other treasure of the churches and convents. This article was not 
observed by the French. On the return of the expedition to France, however, 
Louis XIV. ordered the ecclesiastical plate to be sequestered, and after the 
conclusion of the Peace of Ryswick sent it back to San Domingo to be 
delivered to the governor and clergy of the Spanish part of the island. (Duro, 
op. cit.., v. pp. 291, 296-97). 

266 



, 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

booters, and with few exceptions the governors sent to 
Jamaica had done their best to uphold and enforce the will 
of the councils at home. Ten years or more had to elapse 
before the French Court saw the situation in a similar light, 
and even then the exigencies of war and defence in French 
Hispaniola prevented the governors from taking any- 
effective measures toward suppression. The problem, 
indeed, had not been an easy one. The buccaneers, 
whatever their origin, were intrepid men, not without a 
sense of honour among themselves, wedded to a life of 
constant danger which they met and overcame with 
surprising hardiness. When an expedition was projected 
against their traditional foes, the Spaniards, they calculated 
the chances of profit, and taking little account of the perils 
to be run, or indeed of the flag under which they sailed, 
English, French and Dutch alike became brothers under 
a chief whose courage they perfectly recognised and whom 
they servilely obeyed. They lived at a time when they 
were in no danger of being overhauled by ubiquitous 
cruisers with rifled guns, and so long as they confined 
themselves to His Catholic Majesty's ships and settlements, 
they had trusted in the immunity arising from the 
traditional hostility existing between the English and the 
Spaniards of that era. And for the Spaniards the record of 
the buccaneers had been a terrible one. Between the 
years 1655 and 1671 alone, the corsairs had sacked 
eighteen cities, four towns and more than thirty-five 
villages — Cumana once, Cumanagote twice, Maracaibo 
and Gibraltar twice, Rio de la Hacha five times, Santa 
Marta three times, Tolu eight times, Porto Bello once, 
Chagre twice, Panama once, Santa Catalina twice, Granada 
in Nicaragua twice, Campeache three times, St. Jago de 
Cuba once, and other towns and villages in Cuba and 
Hispaniola for thirty leagues inland innumerable times. 

And this fearful tale of robbery and outrage does not 

267 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

embrace the various expeditions against Porto Bello, 
Campeache, Cartagena and other Spanish ports made 
after 1670. The Marquis de Barinas in 1685 estimated 
the losses of the Spaniards at the hands of the buccaneers 
since the accession of Charles II. to be sixty million crowns ; 
and these figures covered merely the destruction of towns 
and treasure, without including the loss of more than 250 
merchant ships and frigates. 1 If the losses and suffering 
of the Spaniards had been terrible, the advantages accruing 
to the invaders, or to the colonies which received and 
supported them, scarcely compensated for the effort it cost 
them. Buccaneering had denuded Jamaica of its bravest 
men, lowered the moral tone of the island, and retarded 
the development of its natural resources. It was estimated 
that there were lost to the island between 1668 and 1671, 
in the designs against Tobago, Curacao, Porto Bello, 
Granada and Panama, about 2600 men, 2 which was a large 
number for a new and very weak colony surrounded by 
powerful foes. Says the same writer later on : " People 
have not married, built or settled as they would in time of 
peace — some for fear of being destroyed, others have got 
much suddenly by privateers bargains and are gone. 
War carries away all freemen, labourers and planters of 
provisions, which makes work and victuals dear and scarce. 
Privateering encourages all manner of disorder and dis- 
soluteness ; and if it succeed, does but enrich the worst 
sort of people and provoke and alarm the Spaniards." 3 

The privateers, moreover, really injured English trade 
as much as they injured Spanish navigation ; and if the 

1 Duro, op. cit. t v. p. 310. 

2 C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 697. 

s Ibid. ; cf. C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 138 : "The number of tippling 
houses is now doubly increased, so that there is not now resident upon the 
place ten men to every house that selleth strong liquors. There are more 
than 100 licensed houses, besides sugar and rum works that sell without 
licence." 

268 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

English in the second half of the seventeenth century had 
given the Spaniards as little cause for enmity in the West 
Indies as the Dutch had done, they perhaps rather than 
the Dutch would have been the convoys and sharers in the 
rich Flotas. The Spaniards, moreover, if not in the court 
at home, at least in the colonies, would have readily lent 
themselves to a trade, illicit though it be, with the English 
islands, a trade, moreover, which it was the constant aim 
of English diplomacy to encourage and maintain, had they 
been able to assure themselves that their English neigh- 
bours were their friends. But when outrage succeeded 
upon outrage, and the English Governors seemed, in spite 
of their protestations of innocence, to make no progress 
toward stopping them, the Spaniards naturally concluded 
that the English government was the best of liars and the 
worst of friends. From another point of view, too, the 
activity of the buccaneers was directly opposed to the 
commercial interests of Great Britain. Of all the nations 
of Europe the Spaniards were those who profited least from 
their American possessions. It was the English, the 
French and the Dutch who carried their merchandize to 
Cadiz and freighted the Spanish-American fleets, and who 
at the return of these fleets from Porto Bello and Vera 
Cruz appropriated the greater part of the gold, silver and 
precious stuffs which composed their cargoes. And when 
the buccaneers cut off a Spanish galleon, or wrecked the 
Spanish cities on the Main, it was not so much the 
Spaniards who suffered as the foreign merchants interested 
in the trade between Spain and her colonies. If the policy 
of the English and French Governments toward the 
buccaneers gradually changed from one of connivance or 
encouragement to one of hostility and suppression, it was 
because they came to realise that it was easier and more 
profitable to absorb the trade and riches of Spanish 

America through the peaceful agencies of treaty and 

269 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

concession, than by endeavouring to enforce a trade in the 
old-fashioned way inaugurated by Drake and his Eliza- 
bethan contemporaries. 

The pirate successors of the buccaneers were distin- 
guished from their predecessors mainly by the fact that 
they preyed on the commerce of all flags indiscriminately, 
and were outlawed and hunted down by all nations alike. 
They, moreover, widely extended their field of operations. 
No longer content with the West Indies and the shores of 
the Caribbean Sea, they sailed east to the coast of Guinea 
and around Africa to the Indian Ocean. They haunted 
the shores of Madagascar, the Red Sea and the Persian 
Gulf, and ventured even as far as the Malabar Coast, 
intercepting the rich trade with the East, the great ships 
from Bengal and the Islands of Spice. And not only did 
the outlaws of all nations from America and the West 
Indies flock to these regions, but sailors from England 
were fired by reports of the rich spoils obtained to imitate 
their example. One of the most remarkable instances was 
that of Captain Henry Avery, alias Bridgman. In May 
1694 Avery was on an English merchantman, the 
" Charles II.," lying near Corunna. He persuaded the crew 
to mutiny, set the captain on shore, re-christened the ship 
the " Fancy," and sailed to the East Indies. Among other 
prizes he captured, in September 1695, a large vessel called 
the " Gunsway," belonging to the Great Mogul — an exploit 
which led to reprisals and the seizure of the English 
factories in India. On application of the East India 
Company, proclamations were issued on 17th July, 
10th and 21st August 1696, by the Lords Justices of 
England, declaring Avery and his crew pirates and 
offering a reward for their apprehension. 1 Five of the 
crew were seized on their return to England in the 
autumn of the same year, were tried at the Old Bailey 

1 Crawford : Bibliotheca Lindesiana. Handlist of Proclamations- 
270 



THE BUCCANEERS TURN PIRATE 

and hanged, and several of their companions were arrested 
later. 1 

In the North American colonies these new pirates still 
continued to find encouragement and protection. Carolina 
had long had an evil reputation as a hot-bed of piracy, and 
deservedly so. The proprietors had removed one governor 
after another for harbouring the freebooters, but with little 
result. In the Bahamas, which belonged to the same 
proprietors, the evil was even more flagrant. Governor 
Markham of the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania allowed 
the pirates to dispose of their goods and to refit upon the 
banks of the Delaware, and William Penn, the proprietor, 
showed little disposition to reprimand or remove him. 
Governor Fletcher of New York was in open alliance with 
the outlaws, accepted their gifts and allowed them to 
parade the streets in broad daylight. The merchants of 
New York, as well as those of Rhode Island and 
Massachusetts, who were prevented by the Navigation 
Laws from engaging in legitimate trade with other 
nations, welcomed the appearance of the pirate ships laden 
with goods from the East, provided a ready market for 
their cargoes, and encouraged them to repeat their 
voyages. 

In 1699 an Act was passed through Parliament of such 
severity as to drive many of the outlaws from American 
waters. It was largely a revival of the Act of 28, Henry 
VIII., was in force for seven years, and was twice renewed. 
The war of the Spanish Succession, moreover, gave many 
men of piratical inclinations an opportunity of sailing 
under lawful commissions as privateers against the French 
and Spaniards. In this long war, too, the French 
filibusters were especially numerous and active. In 1706 
there were 1200 or 1300 who made their headquarters in 

1 Firth : Naval Songs and Ballads, pp. l.-lii. ; cf. also Archives Coloniales, 
Corresp. Gen. de St Dom., vols, iii.-ix. ; Ibid., Martinique, vols, viii.-xix. 

271 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Martinique alone. 1 While keeping the French islands 
supplied with provisions and merchandise captured in 
their prizes, they were a serious discouragement to English 
commerce in those regions, especially to the trade with the 
North American colonies. Occasionally they threatened 
the coasts of Virginia and New England, and some 
combined with their West Indian cruises a foray along the 
coasts of Guinea and into the Red Sea. These corsairs 
were not all commissioned privateers, however, for some of 
them seized French shipping with as little compunction as 
English or Dutch. Especially after the Treaty of Utrecht 
there was a recrudescence of piracy both in the West 
Indies and in the East, and it was ten years or more 
thereafter before the freebooters were finally suppressed. 

1 Archives Coloniales, Corresp. Gen. de Martinique, vol. xvi. 



272 



APPENDIX I 

An account of the English buccaneers belonging to 
Jamaica and Tortuga in 1663, found among the Rawlinson 
MSS., makes the number of privateering ships fifteen, 
and the men engaged in the business nearly a thousand. 
The list is as follows : — 

English Captains 

Captain 

Sir Thomas Whetstone 

Captain Smart 

Captain Guy . 

Captain James 

Captain Cooper 

Captain Morris 

Captain Brenningham 

Captain Mansfield 

Captain Goodly 

Captain Blewfield, belonging 

to Cape Gratia de Dios, 

living among the Indians . 
Captain Herdue . 

There were four more belonging to Jamaica, of which 
no account was available. The crews were mixed of 
English, French and Dutch. 



Ship 


Men 


Guns 


a Spanish prize . 


60 


7 


Griffon, frigate . 


IOO 


14 


James, frigate 


90 


14 


American, frigate 


70 


6 


his frigate . 


80 


10 


a brigantine 


60 


7 


his frigate . 


70 


6 


a brigantine 


60 


4 


a pink 


60 


6 


a barque . 


5° 


3 


a frigate 


40 


4 



18 



273 



APPENDIX II 

List of filibusters and their vessels on the coasts of 
French San Domingo in 1684 : — 



Captain 


Ship 


Men 


Guns 


Le sieur 


Grammont 


le Hardy . 


300 


52 


„ capitaine Laurens de Graff 


„ Neptune . 


210 


54 


>> >> 


Michel 


la Mutine . 


200 


44 


11 11 


Janquais . 


„ Dauphine 


180 


30 


11 11 


le Sage 


le Tigre 


130 


30 


11 11 


Dedran 


,, Chasseur 


120 


20 


„ sieur 


du Mesnil 


la Trompeuse 


100 


14 


,, capitaine Jocard 


l'lrondelle . 


120 


18 


11 11 


Brea . 


la Fortune . 


100 


14 


La prise 


du cap ne . Laurens 


— 


80 


18 


Le sieur 


de Bernanos 


la Schitie 


60 


8 


„ capitaine Cachemaree 


le St Joseph 


70 


6 


)> >> 


Blot . 


la Quagone 


90 


8 


ii 11 


Vigeron 


„ Louse (barque] 


3° 


4 


11 11 


Petit . 


le Ruze (bateau) 


40 


4 


>> 11 


Lagarde . 


la Subtille . 


30 


2 


)i 11 


Verpre 


le Postilion 


25 


2 



(Paris, Archives Coloniales, Corresp. gen. de St. Dom., 
vol. i. — Memoire sur l'estat de Saint Domingue a M. de 
Seignelay par M. de Cussy.) 



274 



SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Manuscript Sources in England 

Public Record Office : 

State Papers. Foreign. Spain. Vols. 34-72. 

(Abbreviated in the footnotes as S.P. Spain.) 
British Museum : 

Additional MSS. Vols. 11,268; 1 1,410-1 1; 12,410; 

12,423; 12,429-30; 13,964; i3>975; 13,977; 13,992; 

18,273; 22,676; 36,314-53. 

Egerton MSS. Vol. 2395. 

Sloane MSS. Vols. 793 or 894 ; 2724 ; 2752 ; 4020. 

Stowe MSS. Vols. 305O 205b. 

Bodleian Library : 

Rawlinson MSS. Vols. A. 26, 31, 32, 175, 347. 
Tanner MSS. Vols, xlvii. ; li. 

Manuscript Sources in France 
Archives du minis fere des Colonies ; 

Correspondance generale de Saint - Domingue. 

Vols, i.-ix. 
Historique de Saint-Domingue. Vols, i.-iii. 
Correspondance generale de Martinique. Vols, i.-xix. 
Archives du ministere des affaires etrangeres : 

Memoires et documents. Fonds divers. Amerique. 

Vols, v., xiii., xlix., li. 
Correspondance politique. Angleterre. 
Bibliotheque nationale : 

Manuscrits, nouvelles acquisitions. Vols. 9325 ; 9334. 

Renaudat MSS. 

275 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Printed Sources 

Calendar of State Papers. Colonial series. America 
and the West Indies. 1 574-1699. (Abbreviated in the 
footnotes as C.S.P. Colon.) 

Calendar of State Papers. Venetian. 1603 - 16 17. 
(Abbreviated in the footnotes as C.S.P. Ven.) 

Dampier, William : Voyages. Edited by J. Masefield. 
2 vols. London, 1906. 

Gage, Thomas : The English American ... or a new- 
survey of the West Indies, etc. London, 1648. 

Historical Manuscripts Commission : Reports. 
London, 1870 — (in progress). 

Margry, Pierre : Relations et memoires inedits pour 
servir a l'histoire de la France dans les pays d'outremer. 
Paris, 1867. 

Pacheco, Cardenas, y Torres de Mendoza: Coleccion 
de documentos relativos al describrimiento, conquista y 
colonizacion de las posesiones espanoles en America y 
Oceania. 42 vols. Madrid, 1864-83 ; continued as 
Coleccion de documentos ineditos . . . de ultramar. 13 
vols. Madrid, 1885-1900. 

Pointis, Jean Bernard Desjeans, sieur de : Relation de 
l'expedition de Carthagene faite par les Francois en 1697. 
Amsterdam, 1698. 

Present state of Jamaica ... to which is added an 
exact account of Sir Henry Morgan's voyage to . . . 
Panama, etc. London, 1683. 

Recopilacion de leyes de los reynos de las Indias, 
mandadas imprimir y publicar por rey Carlos II. 4 vols. 
Madrid, 168 1. 

Sharp, Bartholomew : The voyages artd adventures of 

Captain B. Sharp ... in the South Sea . . . Also 

Captain Van Horn with his buccanieres surprising of la 

Vera Cruz, etc. London, 1684. 

276 



SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Thurloe, John. A collection of the State papers of, 
etc. Edited by Thomas Birch. 7 vols. London, 1742. 

Venables, General. The narrative of, etc. Edited by 
C. H. Firth. London, 1900. 

Wafer, Lionel : A new voyage and description of the 
Isthmus of America, etc. London, 1699. 

Winwood, Sir Ralph. Memorials of affairs of State . . . 
collected from the original papers of, etc. Edited by 
Edmund Sawyer. London, 1725. 



Among the printed sources one of the earliest and most 
important is the well-known history of the buccaneers 
written by Alexander Olivier Exquemelin (corrupted by 
the English into Esquemeling, by the French into 
Oexmelin). Of the author himself very little is known. 
Though sometimes claimed as a native of France, he 
was probably a Fleming or a Hollander, for the first 
edition of his works was written in the Dutch language. 
He came to Tortuga in 1666 as an engage of the 
French West India Company, and after serving three 
years under a cruel master was rescued by the governor, 
M. d'Ogeron, joined the filibusters, and remained with 
them till 1674, taking part in most of their exploits. He 
seems to have exercised among them the profession of 
barber-surgeon. Returning to Europe in 1674, he 
published a narrative of the exploits in which he had 
taken part, or of which he at least had a first-hand 
knowledge. 1 This "history" is the oldest and most 
elaborate chronicle we possess of the extraordinary deeds 

1 Biographies of Exquemelin are contained in the " Biographie Uni- 
versale" of Michaud, vol. xxxi. p. 201, and in the " Nouvelle Biographie 
Generale " of Hoefer, vol. xxxviii. p. 544. But both are very unsatisfactory 
and display a lamentable ignorance of the bibliography of his history of the 
buccaneers. According to the preface of a French edition of the work 
published at Lyons in 1774 and cited in the "Nouvelle Biographie," 
Exquemelin was born about 1645 and died after 1707. 

277 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

and customs of these freebooters who played so large a 
part in the history of the West Indies in the seventeenth 
century, and it forms the basis of all the popular modern 
accounts of Morgan and other buccaneer captains. 
Exquemelin, although he sadly confuses his dates, seems 
to be a perfectly honest witness, and his accounts of such 
transactions as fell within his own experience are closely 
corroborated by the official narratives. 

The first edition of the book, now very rare, is 
entitled : 

De Americaensche Zee-Roovers. Behelsende eene 

pertinente en waerachtige Beschrijving van alle 

de voornaemste Roveryen en onmenschliycke 

wreend heden die Englese en France Rovers 

tegens de Spanjaerden in America gepleeght 

hebben ; Verdeelt in drie deelen . . . Beschreven 

door A. O. Exquemelin . . . t' Amsterdam, by 

Jan ten Hoorn, anno 1678, in 4 . l 

This book was reprinted several times 2 and numerous 

translations were made, one on the top of the other. 

What appears to be a German translation of Exquemelin 

appeared in 1679 with the title : 

Americanische Seerauber. Beschreibung der grosses- 
ten durch die Franzosische und Englische Meer-Beuter 
wider die Spanier in Amerika venibten Raubery 
Grausamheit . . . Durch A. O. Niirnberg, 1679. I2 °- 3 

x Brit. Mus., 1061. Gf. 20 (2). The date, 1674, of the first Dutch edition 
cited by Dampierre ("Essai sur les sources de l'histoire des Antilles 
Francaises," p. 151) is doubtless a misprint. 

Both Dampierre {op. cit., p. 152) and Sabin ("Diet, of Books relating to 
America," vi. p. 310) cite, as the earliest separate account of the 
buccaneers, Claes G. Campaen's " Zee-Roover," Amsterdam, 1659. This 
little volume, however, does not deal with the buccaneers in the West 
Indies, but with privateering along the coasts of Europe and Africa. 

2 "Historie der Boecaniers of Vrybuyters van America . . . Met 
Figuuren, 3 Deel. t'Amsterdam, 1700," 4 .— Brit. Mus., 9555. c. 19. 

3 Sabin, op. cit., vi. 310. 

278 



SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 

This was followed two years later by a Spanish edition, 
also taken from the Dutch original : 

Piratas de la America y luz a la defensa de las 
costas de Indias Occidentales. Dedicado a Don 
Bernadino Antonio de Pardinas Villar de 
Francos . . . por el zelo y cuidado de Don 
Antonio Freyre . . . Traducido de la lingua 
Flamenca en Espanola por el Dor. de Buena- 
Maison . . . Colonia Agrippina, en casa de 
Lorenzo Struickman. Ano de 1681. 12 . 1 

This Spanish text, which seems to be a faithful 
rendering of the Dutch, was reprinted with a differ- 
ent dedication in 1682 and in 1684, 2 and again in 
Madrid in 1793. It is the version on which the first 
English edition was based. The English translation 
is entitled : 

Bucaniers of America ; or a true account of the 
. . . assaults committed . . . upon the coasts of 
the West Indies, by the Bucaniers of Jamaica and 
Tortuga . . . especially the . . . exploits of Sir 
Henry Morgan . . . written originally in Dutch 
by J. Esquemeling . . . now . . . rendered into 
English. W. Crooke ; London, 1684. 4 . 3 

The first English edition of Exquemelin was so well 
received that within three months a second was pub- 
lished, to which was added the account of a voyage 
by Captain Cook and a brief chapter on the exploits of 

1 Brit. Mus., G. 7179. The appended description of the Spanish Govern- 
ment in America was omitted and a few Spanish verses were added in one or 
two places, but otherwise the translation seems to be trustworthy. The 
portraits and the map of the isthmus of Panama are the same as in the Dutch 
edition, but the other plates are different and better. In the Bibl. Nat. 
there is another Spanish edition of 168 1 in quarto. 

- Brit. Mus., 1 198, a. 12 (or) 1 197, h. 2. 

3 Brit. Mus., G. 7198. 

279 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Barth. Sharp in the Pacific Ocean. 1 In the same year, 
moreover, there appeared an entirely different English 
version, with the object of vindicating the character of 
Morgan from the charges of brutality and lust which 
had appeared in the first translation and in the Dutch 
original. 2 It was entitled : 

The History of the Bucaniers ; being an im- 
partial relation of all the battels, sieges, and 
other most eminent assaults committed for several 
years upon the coasts of the West Indies by 
the pirates of Jamaica and Tortuga. More 
especially the unparalleled achievements of Sir 
Henry Morgan . . . very much corrected from 
the errors of the original, by the relations of 
some English gentlemen, that then resided in 
those parts. Den Engelseman is een Duyvil voor 
een Mensck. London, printed for Thomas Malthus 
at the Sun in the Poultry. 1684. 3 

The first edition of 1684 was reprinted with a new title- 
page in 1695, and again in 1699. The latter included, 
in addition to the text of Exquemelin, the journals of 
Basil Ringrose and Raveneau de Lussan, both de- 
scribing voyages in the South Seas, and the voyage 
of the Sieur de Montauban to Guinea in 1695. 4 This 
was the earliest of the composite histories of the 

'Brit. Mus., 1 197, h. 1. The Journal of Basil Ringrose appeared as a 
second volume in 1685. 

2 Cf. the preface, as well as the preface of "The Voyages and Adventures 
of Captain Barth. Sharp," etc., published in 1684. The amusing reply of the 
original editor is contained in the preface to the edition of Ringrose's 
Journal, 1685. 

3 Brit. Mus., G. 13,674. 

* Ibid., 10,470, c. 5. Other reprints appeared in England in 1704, 1741, 
*759> I77i> 1774, 1800, 1810 and 1893. There were also two Dublin editions 
of 1741 and 1821, and two Glasgow editions of 1762 and 1773. Five editions 
have appeared in America, three in New York in 1826, 1836 and 1840, and 
two in Boston in 1853 and 1856. 

280 



SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 

buccaneers and became the model for the Dutch 
edition of 1700 and the French editions published at 
Trevoux in 1744 and 1775. 

The first French translation of Exquemelin ap- 
peared two years after the English edition of 1684. 
It is entitled : 

Histoire des Aventuriers qui se sont signalez 
dans les Indes contenant ce qu'ils ont fait de 
plus remarquable depuis vingt annees. Avec la 
vie, les Moeurs, les Coutumes des Habitans de 
Saint Domingue et de la Tortue et une De- 
scription exacte de ces lieux ; . . . Le tout enrichi 
de Cartes Geographiques et de Figures en Taille- 
douce. Par Alexandre Olivier Oexmelin. A Paris, 
chez Jacques Le Febre. MDCLXXXVI., 2 vols. 
12V 

This version may have been based on the Dutch 
original ; although the only indication we have of this 
is the fact that the work includes at the end a de- 
scription of the government and revenues of the Spanish 
Indies, a description which is found in none of the 
earlier editions of Exquemelin, except in the Dutch 
original of 1678. The French text, however, while 
following the outline of Exquemelin's narrative, is 
greatly altered and enlarged. The history of Tortuga 
and French Hispaniola is elaborated with details from 
another source, as are also the descriptions of the 
manners and customs of the cattle-hunters and the 
freebooters. Accounts of two other buccaneers, Mont- 
bars and Alexandre Bras-le-Fer, are inserted, but 
d'Ogeron's shipwreck on Porto Rico and the achieve- 
ments of Admiral d'Estrees against the Dutch are 
omitted. In general the French editor, the Sieur de 

'Brit. Mus., 9555, aa. 4. 
281 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

Frontignieres, has re-cast the whole story. A similar 
French edition appeared in Paris in 1688, 1 and in 17 13 
a facsimile of this last was published at Brussels by 
Serstevens. 2 Sabin (pp. cit., vi. 312) mentions an edition 
of 1699 in three volumes which included the journal 
of Raveneau de Lussan. In 1744, and again in 1775, 
another French edition was published in four volumes 
at Trevoux, to which was added the voyage of Montauban 
to the Guinea Coast, and the expeditions against Vera 
Cruz in 1683, Campeache in 1685, and Cartagena in 1697. 
The third volume contained the journal of R. de Lussan, 
and the fourth a translation of Johnson's "History of 
the Pirates." 3 A similar edition appeared at Lyons in 
1774, but I have had no opportunity of examining 
a copy. 4 

Secondary Works 

Of the secondary works concerned with the history of 
the buccaneers, the oldest are the writings of the French 
Jesuit historians of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries. Dutertre, 5 a chronicler of events within his 
own experience as well as a reliable historian, unfortunately 
brings his narrative to a close in 1667, but up to that year 
he is the safest guide to the history of the French Antilles. 
Labat, in his " Nouveau Voyage aux Isles de l'Amerique" 
(Paris, 1722), gives an account of eleven years, between 
1694 and 1705, spent in Martinique and Guadeloupe, and 
although of little value as an historian, he supplies us with 

1 Brit. Mus., 278, a. 13, 14. 

2 Dampierre, p. 153. A copy occurs in the Library of the Hispanic 
Society, New York City. 

3 Brit. Mus., 9555, aa. I. 

4 Nouvelle Biographie Generate, torn, xxxviii. 544. The best biblio- 
graphy of Exquemelin is in Sabin, op. cit., vi. 309. 

5 Dutertre, Jean Baptiste : Histoire generale des Antilles. Paris, 
1667-71. 

282 



SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 

a fund of the most picturesque and curious details about 
the life and manners of the people in the West Indies 
at the end of the seventeenth century. A much more 
important and accurate work is Charlevoix's " Histoire de 
l'lsle Espagnole ou de S. Domingue" (Paris, 1732), and 
this I have used as a general introduction to the history 
of the French buccaneers. Raynal's " Histoire philo- 
sophique et politique des etablissements et du commerce 
europeen dans les deux Indes" (Amsterdam, 1770) is 
based for the origin of the French Antilles upon Dutertre 
and Labat and is therefore negligible for the period of the 
buccaneers. Adrien Dessalles, who in 1847 published his 
" Histoire generate des Antilles," preferred, like Labat 
and Raynal, to depend on the historians who had preceded 
him rather than endeavour to gain an intimate knowledge 
of the sources. 

In the English histories of Jamaica written by Long, 
Bridges, and Gardner, whatever notice is taken of the 
buccaneers is meagre and superficial, and the same is true 
of Bryan Edwards' " History, civil and commercial, of the 
British colonies in the West Indies." Thomas Southey, 
in his " Chronological History of the West Indies " 
(Lond. 1827), devotes considerable space to their achieve- 
ments, but depends entirely upon the traditional sources. 
In 1803 J. W. von Archenholz published "Die Geschichte 
der Flibustier," a superficial, diffuse and even puerile 
narrative, giving no references whatever to authorities. 1 
In 1816 a "History of the Buccaneers in America" was 
published by James Burney as the fourth volume of 
" A chronological History of the Discoveries in the South 
Seas or Pacific Ocean." Burney casts but a rapid glance 
over the West Indies, devoting most of the volume to an 
account of the voyages of the freebooters along the coast 

1 It was translated into French (Paris. 1804), and into English by Geo. 
Mason (London, 1807). 

283 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

of South America and in the East Indies. Walter 
Thornbury in 1858 wrote "The Buccaneers, or the 
Monarchs of the Main," a hasty compilation, florid and 
overdrawn, and without historical judgment or accuracy. 
In 1895 M. Henri Lorin presented a Latin thesis to the 
Faculty of History in Paris, entitled : — " De praedonibus 
Insulam Santi Dominici celebrantibus saeculo septimo 
decimo," but he seems to have confined himself to 
Exquemelin, Le Pers, 1 Labat, Dutertre and a few docu- 
ments drawn from the French colonial archives. The 
best summary account in English of the history and 
significance of the buccaneers in the West Indies is con- 
tained in Hubert H. Bancroft's "History of Central 
America" (ii. chs. 26, 28-30). Within the past year 
there has appeared an excellent volume by M. Pierre de 
Vaissiere describing Creole life and manners in the French 
colony of San Domingo in the century and a half preced- 
ing the Revolution. 2 It is a reliable monograph, and 
like his earlier volume, " Gentilshommes campagnards de 
l'ancienne France," is written in a most entertaining style. 
De Vaissiere contributes much valuable information, 
especially in the first chapter, about the origins and 
customs of the French " flibustiers." 

I have been able to find only two Spanish works which 
refer at all to the buccaneers. One is entitled : 

Piraterias y agresiones de los ingleses y de otros 
pueblos de Europa en la America espanola desde el 
siglo XVI. al XVI 1 1., deducidas de las obras de D. 
Dionisio de Alcedo y Herrera. Madrid, 1883. 4 . 

Except for a long introduction by Don Justo Zaragoza 
based upon Exquemelin and Alcedo, it consists of a 

1 Le Pers was a Jesuit writing in the West Indies, whose MSS. supplied 
the basis for Charlevoix's history. Cf. Dampierre : Essai sur les sources 
de l'histoire des Antilles francaises. Paris, 1904, pp. 157-67. 

1 Vaissiere, Pierre de : Saint Dominigue. (1629-1789). Paris, 1909. 

284 



SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 

collection of extracts referring to freebooters on the coasts 
of Peru and Chili, and deals chiefly with the eighteenth 
century. The other Spanish work is an elaborate history 
of the Spanish navy lately published in nine volumes by 
Cesareo Fernandez Duro, and entitled : — 

Armada espanola desde la union de Ios reinos de 
Castilla y de Aragon. Madrid, 1895. 

There are numerous chapters dealing with the outrages 
of the French and English freebooters in the West Indies, 
some of them based upon Spanish sources to which I have 
had no access. But upon comparison of Duro's narrative, 
which in so far as it relates to the buccaneers is often meagre, 
with the sources available to me, I find that he adds little 
to what may be learned on the subject here in England. 

One of the best English descriptions of the Spanish 
colonial administration and commercial system is still 
that contained in book viii. of Robertson's ■ History of 
America" (Lond. 1777). The latest and best summary 
account, however, is in French, in the introduction to vol. i. 
of" La traite negriere aux Indes de Castille" (Paris, 1906), 
by Georges Scelle. Weiss, in vol. ii. of his history of 
" L'Espagne depuis Philippe II. jusqu'aux Bourbons" 
(Paris, 1844), treats of the causes of the economic decadence 
of Spain, and gives an account of the contraband trade in 
Spanish America, drawn largely from Labat. On this 
general subject Leroy - Beaulieu, " De la colonization 
chez les peuples modernes " (Paris, 1874), has been 
especially consulted. 

The best account of the French privateers of the 

sixteenth century in America is in an essay entitled : " Les 

corsairs francais au XVT siecle dans les Antilles " (Paris, 

1902), by Gabriel Marcel. It is a short monograph based 

on the collections of Spanish documents brought together 

by Pacheco and Navarrete. The volume by E. Ducer6 

285 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 

entitled, "Les corsairs sous l'ancien regime" (Bayonne, 1895), 
is also valuable for the history of privateering. For the 
history of the Elizabethan mariners I have made use of the 
two works by J. S. Corbett : " Drake and the Tudor Navy " 
(Lond. 1898), and " The successors of Drake " (Lond. 1900). 
Other works consulted were : 

Arias de Miranda, Jose : Examen critico-historico 
del influyo que tuvo en el comercio, industria y 
poblacion de Espana su dominacion en America. 
Madrid, 1854. 

Blok, Pieter Johan : History of the people of the 
Netherlands. Translated by C. A. Bierstadt and 
Ruth Putnam. 4 vols. New York, 1898. 

Brown, Alex. : The Genesis of the United States. 

2 vols. Lond., 1890. 

Crawford, James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of: 
Bibliotheca Lindesiana. Handlist of proclamations. 

3 vols. Aberdeen, 1893-1901. 

Dumont, Jean: Corps universel diplomatique. 13 
vols. Hague, 1726-39. 

Froude, James Anthony : History of England from 
the fall of Wolsey to the defeat of the Spanish 
armada. 12 vols. 1870-75. English seamen in 
the sixteenth century. Lond., 1901. 

Gardiner, Samuel Rawson : History of the Common- 
wealth and Protectorate, 1649- 1660. 3 vols. Lond., 
1 894- 1903. 

Geographical and historical description of . . . 
Cartagena, Porto Bello, La Vera Cruz, the Havana 
and San Augustin. Lond., 1741. 

Gibbs, Archibald R. : British Honduras . . . from 

. . . 1670. Lond., 1883. 
286 



SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Hakluyt. Richard : The principal navigations ... of 
the English nation, etc. 3 vols. Lond., 1598- 1600. 

Herrera y Tordesillas, Antonio : Historia general de 
las Indias. 4 vols. Madrid, 1601-1 5. 

Hughson, Shirley C. : The Carolina pirates and 
colonial commerce. Baltimore, 1894. 

Lucas, C. P. : A historical geography of the British 
colonies. 4 vols. Oxford, 1905. Vol. ii. The 
West Indies. 

Monson, Sir William : The naval tracts of . . . 
Edited ... by M. Oppenheim. Vols. i. and ii. 
Lond., 1902 — (in progress). 

Oviedo y Valdes, Gonzalo Fernandez de : Historia 
general de las Indias. Salamanca, 1547. 

Peytraud, Lucien : L'Esclavage aux Antilles 
franchises avant 1789, etc. Paris, 1897. 

Saint-Yves, G. : Les compagnes de Jean d'Estrees 
dans la mer des Antilles, 1676-78. Paris, 1900. 

Strong, Frank : Causes of Cromwell's West Indian 
expedition. (Amer. Hist. Review. Jan. 1899). 

Veitia Linaje, Josef de : Norte de la Contratacion 
de las Indias Occidentales. Sevilla, 1672. 

Vignols, Leon : La piraterie sur l'Atlantique au 
XVIIP siecle. Rennes, 1891. 



287 



INDEX 



ACAPULCO, 21 

Aix-la-Chapelle, peace of, 156 
Ajoupa, 68, 79 

Albemarle, first duke of, see Monck, 
George 
, , second duke of, see Monck, 
Christopher 
Albuquerque, Duke of. 109, 199 
Alexander VI. , Bull of Pope, 3, 30 
Allison, Captain (buccaneer), 224 
Antigua, 48, 55, 229 
Araya salt-mine, 53-54 
Archenholz, J. W. von, 283 
Arlington, Earl of, see Bennett, Sir 

Henry 
Arundell, James, 114, 117 
Assiento of negroes, 26, 36-7, 103, 

184 n. 
Association, Island, see Tortuga 
Aston, Lord of Forfar, 102 
Avery, Captain Henry, 270-71 
Aves, Isle d', see Isle d'Aves 
Aylett, Captain (buccaneer), 156 
Azogues, 22, 101 
Azores, 3, 4, 15, 20, 42, 84 



Bahama Islands, 2, 237, 238 and ». , 

271 
Bahia, 49 

Bancroft, Hubert H., 284 
Banister, Major James, 205 
Bannister, Captain (buccaneer) 254 
Barbacoa, 68 
Barbadoes, 47, 50, 67, 74, 85 and n., 

87, 92, 99, 104, 120, etc. 
Barbuda, 48 

Barinas, Marques de, 268 
Barker, Andrew, 40 
Barlovento, Armada de, 109, 251 «., 

261 
Barnard, Captain (buccaneer), in 
Barnes, Captain ( ,, ), 219 



Barre, Charles, 215 

Barry, Colonel Samuel, 118 and n. 

Beckford, Peter, 217 

Beeston, Captain (afterwards Sir), 

William, 9772., 108 «., 118, 135 

and «., 142, 155, 158, 200, 202, 

259, etc. 
Begon, M. Michel (Intendant of the 

French Islands), 244, 247 n. 
Benavides, Don Juan de, 50 
Bennett, Sir Henry (afterwards Earl 

of Arlington), 100, 122, 128, 132, 

133, 142, 143 «., 160, 186, 198, etc. 
Berkeley, Sir Thomas, 41 
Bermuda, 20, 75, 92, 201 
Bernanos, Captain (buccaneer), 274 
Bernard, Samuel, 255, 257 
Bigford, Captain (buccaneer), 156 
" Biscayners," 254-5 
Blake, Captain, R.N., 93 
Blewfield, Captain (buccaneer), 273 
Blot, Captain (buccaneer), 274 
Boston (Mass.), 251 
Bradley, Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph 

(buccaneer), 164-5 
Brayne, Lieutenant-General William, 

96, 114, 127 
Brazil, 3, 25, 36, 47, 49 and «., 102 
Breda, treaties of, 141 
Breha, Captain, see Landresson, 

Michel 
Brenningham, Captain (buccaneer), 

273 
Brest, corsairs of, 42, 262, 265 
Bridges, George W., 283 
Browne, Captain James (buccaneer), 

217-18 
Browne, Richard (buccaneer), 156, 

190 «., 195, 196 
Buccaneers, cruelties of, 147-50, 
153 «., 185/: 
„ customs of, 70-78, 163 n. 

,, derivation of the word, 

66 



19 



289 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 



Buccaneers, laws against, see Laws 
against privateers and 
pirates 
,, numbers of, 124, 240 «., 

271 
„ origins of, 67, 69, 78- 

80, 125-27 
,, suppression of, 200^. 

,, vessels of, 75 

Buenos Ayres, 10, 22 
Bull of Pope Alexander VI., see 

Alexander VI. 
Burney, James, 283 
Burough, Cornelius, 99 
Butler, Gregory (Commissioner of 

Jamaica), 85 n. 
Byndloss, Colonel Robert, 215, 248, 
255 



Cabral, Pedro Alvarez, 3 
Cachemaree, Captain (buccaneer), 274 
Cadiz, 9«., 12 and «., 13 and »., 16, 

20, 22, 25 n., 26, 40, g6n., etc. 
Campeache, city of, I2«., 22, 107-8, 
109, in, 210, 222, 

245 
,, province of, 21, 107, 

137 n., 138, I43>I55- 
201, 204, 207, 208, 
etc. 
Campo y Espinosa, Don Alonso del, 

157, 158 
Canary Islands, 14, 15, 42, 241 
Cap Francois, 220, 221, 258, 261, 

262 ». 
Caracas, 10, I2«., 15, 16, 22, 50, 154, 

222, 240, 242 
Cardenas, Alonso de, 52, 53 
Carey, Colonel Theod., 129, 130 
Carleill, General Christopher, 39 
Carleton, Sir Dudley, Viscount 

Dorchester, 102 
Carlile, Captain Charles, R.N., 236 
Carlisle, Earl of, see Howard, Charles 
Carolinas, 3, 47, 239, 250, 251, 252, 

253» 271 
Cartagena (New Granada), gn., 11, 

14 and «., 15, 16, 19, 23, 38, 39, 

262, etc. 
Cartago (Costa Rica), 136 and n. 
Casa de Contratacion, II, 12, l^n., 

22, 25 and «., 42 
Catherine of Braganza, 100 
Cattle-hunters, 57-58, 62, 65, 66-69 



Cavallos (Honduras), 21 

Cayenne (Guiana), 233, 234 

Cecil, Robert, Viscount Cranborne 
and Earl of Salisbury, 32«., 51 

"Centurion," 104, 105, 108 and «. 

Chagre, castle of, see 

„ port of, 43, 195, 267 

,, river, 17 »., 164, 168, 175, 

193 
Chaloner, Captain, 54 
Charles I., King of England, 50, 52, 
102 
,, II. , King of England, 97, 100, 
101, 103, 109, no, 117, 119, 
120, 121, etc. 
,, II., King of Spain, 268 
,, V., Emperor, 10, I3«., 45, 
46 
Charleston (Carolina), 252, 253 
Charlevoix, Pierre-Francois-Xavier, 
58, 62, 70, 78, 81, 245, 246«., 
262 n., 283, 284 n. 
Chasse-partie, 73 
Chili, IO, II, 17, 48, 229 
Cinquantaines, 63 
Clandestine trade, 8 and «,, 25-27, 

36-38, 102-104 
Clarke, Robert (Governor of the 

Bahamas), 237-8 
Clifford, George, Earl of Cumberland, 

34, 40, 41 
Codrington, Christopher (Deputy- 
Governor of Nevis), 229 
Colbert, Jean-Baptiste, Marquis de 

Seignelay, Sn., gn. 
Coligny, Admiral Gaspard de, 47 
Colleton, James (Governor of Caro- 
lina), 252 
Collier, Edward (buccaneer), 155, 156, 

160, 182 n., 190 »., 196 
Colombia, U.S. of, see New Granada 
Columbus, Christopher, 2, 42 
Consulado, 12, 13 
Contraband trade, see Clandestine 

trade 
Cooke, Captain (buccaneer), 224 
Cooper, Captain (buccaneer), in, 

273 
Corbett, Julian S., 286 
Cordova, Don Luis de, 242 
Cornwallis, Sir Charles, 51, 54 
Coro (Venezuela), 98 
Cortez, Hernando, 3, 46 
Costa Rico, 136 and n. 
Cottington, Francis, Lord, 101-2 



290 



INDEX 



Council of the Indies, 13 and n., 14, 

22, 25«., 102 
"Cour Volant," 155-6, and n. 
Coventry, Sir Henry (Secretary of 

State), 215 
Coxon, Captain John (buccaneer), 

220, 223; 22 4> 22 5«>> 22 6, 227-8 

and »., 235, 237 and n., 238, 245, 

etc. 
Cranborne, Viscount, see Cecil, Robert 
Criminals transported to the colonies, 

5, 92, 125-6 
Cromwell, Oliver, 85, 87-90, 92, 100 
Cuba, 2, 19, 21, 23, 26, 32, 42, 46, 

49, 77, etc. 
Cumana (Venezuela), 16, 53, 98, 267 
Cumanagote (Venezuela), 267 
Cumberland, Earl of, see Clifford, 

George 
Curacao, 48, 67, 128, 129, 131, 134, 

135, 143, 220, 221, etc. 
Cussy, Sieur Tarin de (Governor of 

French Hispaniola), 243-4 and »., 

245, 246, 258 



Dalyson, Captain William, 99 n. 
Dampier, William, 73«., 108 «., 

221 n., 225 n., 228 «., 247 n. 
Daniel, Captain (buccaneer), 74 
Darien, Isthmus of, 3, 22, 39, 40, 43, 

145, 163, 191 «., 225 and n., 226, 

etc. 
Deane, John (buccaneer), 213-14 
Dedran, Captain (buccaneer), 274 
Dempster, Captain (buccaneer), 154 
Deschamps, Jeremie, Seigneur de 

Rausset (Governor of Tortuga), 

116 and n., 117, 119 
Deseada, 14, 15, 20 
Desjeans, Jean- Bernard, Sieur de 

Pointis, 262^". 
Dessalles, Adrien, 283 
Diaz Pimienta, Don Francisco, 55, 

56 n. 
Diego Grille (buccaneer), 201 and «. 
Dieppe, corsairs of, 42, 48 
Dominica, 20, 38, 74, 235 
"Don Francisco,' 207 
" Don Juan Morf,' 60 and »., 61 
Dorchester, Viscount see Carleton, 

Sir Dudley 
Doyley, Colonel Edward (Governor 

of Jamaica), 91. 96-97, 98, 99 and 

n., 100, 101, 107, 116, 122, 124, etc. 



Drake, Sir Francis, 31, 34, 38, 39, 

40, 41, 50, 89 and ;/., 195, 210, 

etc. 
Ducasse, Jean-Baptiste (Governor of 

French Hispaniola), 260-61, 262, 

263, 265, 266 
Ducere, Eduard, 285-6 
Duro, Cesario Fernandez, 135 w.„ 

211 w., 243«.,285 
Dutch wars, see War 

,, West India Company, 47, 49 
Dutertre, Jean-Baptiste, 70, 114, 

Il6«., n8»., 282, 284 

East Indies, see Indies, East 
Edmondes, Sir Thomas, 54 
Edwards, Bryan, 283 
Elizabeth, Queen, 29, 31, 34, 38, 39,. 

46, 50, 101, 136 
Elletson, Robert, 248, 249, 255, 257 
Engages, 59, 79-80, 124 
Equador, 17, 229 

Esmit, Adolf (Governor of St 
Thomas), 234-37 
,, Nicholas (Governor of St. 
Thomas), 236 
Esnambuc, Mons. d', 63 
Essex, Captain Cornelius (buccaneer), 

224, 226 
Estrees, Jean, Comte d', gn., 220-221 
Everson, Captain Jacob (buccaneer), 

228 and n., 254;/. 
Everson, Jory (Governor of St. 

Thomas), 237 
Exquemelin, Alexander Olivier, 70,. 

77. 78, 79, i 2 4, 131 «•> 135 "•» 
136 «., 137 «., 277-82 



Fanshaw, Sir Richard, 103, 106, 

120, 121, 140, 141 
Ferdinand and Isabella, Kings of 

Spain, 3, 10 
Fitzgerald, Philip, 206-7 
Fletcher, Benjamin (Governor of New 

York), 271 
Flibustiers, derivation of the word, 

66 ; see Buccaneers 
Fload, Captain (Governor of Tor 

tuga), 64 «. 
Flores, see Azores. 
Florida, 2, 47, 54. 
Flota, 20, 38-9, 49, 77- 95, 9 6 and n > 

103, 109, 242 : cf. also Treasure 

fleets 



19* 



291 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 



Fontenay, Chevalier de (Governor of 

Tortuga), 81-84, 1I 3> IJ 6 
Fortescue, Major-General Richard, 

92, 96, 127 
Franquesnay, Sieur de (Governor of 

French Hispaniola), 222, 244 and 

n. , 247 n. 
French wars, see War 
French West India Company, 48, 

117, 123, 162 
Frobisher, Martin, 39 
Frogge, William, 174 n., 177 n., 

184 «., 186, 196 n. 
Fnemayor, Rui Fernandez de, 61 

and «. 



Gage, Thomas, 16 n., 18, 23, 55**., 

90 
Galicia, Company of, I2«. 
Galleons, 14-20, 21, 22, 23, 25 »., 55, 

$6n., 62, 76; cf. also Treasure 

fleets. 
Galleons' passage, 15 
Gardner, William J., 283 
Gautemala, 10, 16, 17 »., 22, 77 
Gaves, Don Gabriel de, 60 
" Gens de la cote," 69 
Gibraltar (Venezuela), 157, 267 
Godolphin Sir William, 103, 160, 

186, 197, 198, 199, 207, 208, 209- 

10 
"Golden Hind," 39 
Golden Island, 225, 253 
Goodly, Captain (buccaneer), 273 
Goodson, Vice-Admiral William, 92- 

96. 98 «., 99, 104 
Graff, Laurens-Cornille Baldran, 

Sieur de, 241-43, 244 «., 245,246 

and n., 248, 258-59, 262 n., 274 
Grammont, Sieur de (buccaneer), 73, 

221-2, 240-1, 243, 244, 245, 246 

and n., 248 and n. 
Granada (Nicaragua), l6«., 1 36, 

138-9, 162, 267, 268 
Granjeria de las Perlas (New 

Granada), 44 
Grenville, Sir Richard, 40 
Guadaloupe, 14, 20, 48; 67, 131, 282 
" Guanahani," 2 
Guiana, 10, 41, 47, 54 
Guinea, coast of, 36, 37, 38, 235, 

241, 270, 272 
Guipuzcoa, Company of, 12 n. 
"Gunsway," 270 



Guy, Captain (buccaneer), 273 
Guzman, Gonzalo de, 43 

,, Don Juan Perez de, see 
Perez de Guzman. 



Hamlin, Captain Jean (buccaneer), 

234-6 and n., 251 n- 
Hampton, Thomas, 37-38 
Haro, Don Francisco de, 183 n. 

„ Don Luis de, 100 
Harris, Captain Peter (buccaneer), 

225, 226, 245 

Harrison, Captain, (buccaneer), 162 
Hattsell, Captain, ( ,, ), 136 
Havana, 14, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 

42, 43, 45,. etc. 
Havre, corsairs, of, 48 
Hawkins, Sir John, 31, 34, 36, 37, 
38, 39, 40, 210. 
,, William, 36 
Heath, Attorney- General Sir Robert, 

52 

Henrietta Island, 55, 59 n. 

Henry II., King of France, 53 
„ IV, ,, 9«-,48 

„ VIII. King bf England, 36 
and n. 

Herdue, Captain (buccaneer), 273 

Heyn, Admiral Piet, 49, 96 

Hilton, Captain (Governor of Tor- 
tuga), 59, 60 

Hispaniola, 2, 20 and n. 26, 32, 34, 
35, 37, 46, 55, 57, etc. 

Holland Earl of, see Rich, Henry 

Holmes, Admiral Sir Robert, 253 

Honduras, 50, 107, 208, 211, 223, 

226, 234, 249 
Hopton, Sir Arthur, 53 

Howard, Charles, Earl of Carlisle 
(Governor of Jamaica), 
205, 211, 212, 222-28, 
232 
,, Sir Philip, 255 

Humanes, Conde de, 102 



Ibarra, Don Carlos, 62 n. 
Inchiquin, Earl of, see O'Brien, 

William 
Indian Ocean, pirates in, see Pirates 
Indians, see Spain, cruelties to Indians 
Indies, Council of the, see Council 
,, exclusion of foreigners from, 
see Spain 



292 



INDEX 



Indies, East, pirates in, see Pirates 
,, West, colonisation of, 45-48 
,, ,, first English ship in, 

34-35 
" Indults," 25 

Interlopers, see Clandestine trade 
Isabella, Queen, see Ferdinand and 

Isabella 
Isle d'Aves, 220 and ;z., 221, 222, 241 
,, la Vache, 155, 156, 160, 161, 
162, 205, 212, 235, 236 «., 
245, etc. 



Jackman, Captain (buccaneer), 137, 

143 
Jackson, Captain William, 50, 67, 85 
Jacobs, Captain (buccaneer), see 

Everson 
Jamaica, 2, 19, 46, 5°, 57> 73, 77> 85, 
86, 90, etc. 
., assembly of, 1 10, 217, 218, 

227, 230, 231, 233, 248 
,, Council of, 104, 106, 107, 
ill, 118, 132, 159, 196, 
202, 203, etc. 
James, Captain (buccaneer), 273 

,, ("President of Tor- 

tuga"), 64 n. 
James I., King of England, 46, 50, 
51, 101 n. 
,, II., King of England, 253, 
255> 257, 258 
Jamestown (Virginia), 47 
Jenkins, Sir Leoline, 208 
Jimenez, Don Jose Sanchez, 139 
Jocard, Captain (buccaneer), 274 
Johnson, Captain (buccaneer), 202-3 

„ „ R.N.,234 

"Judith," 39 
fuzgado de Indias, 13 n. 



Kingston (Jamaica), 50, 
Knollys, Francis, 39, 40 



Labat, Jean-Baptiste, 70, 73-5, 

282, 284, 285 
Lagarde, Captain (buccaneer), 274 
La Guayra (Venezuela), 240-41 
Lancers, see Cinqtiantaines 
Landresson, Captain Michel, alias 

Breha (buccaneer), 251 and n. f 

252, 274 



Langford, Captain Abraham, 1 18-19 
Las Casas, Bartolome de, Bishop of 

Chiapa, p. 32 
Laurens de Graff, see Graff. 
La Vivon, Mons., 155-6 and n. 
Laws against privateers and pirates, 

no, 217, 218, 220, 227, 230-31, 

25i-53>27i 
Le Clerc, Captain Francois, 42 
Legane (Hispaniola), 124, 258, 26 1 
Legrand, Pierre (buccaneer), 135 «. 
" Le Pain," see Paine, Peter 
Le Pers (Jesuit writer), 284 and n, 
Lerma, Duque de, 9 n. 
Leroy-Beaulieu, Pierre- Paul, 1, 285 
Le Sage, Captain (buccaneer), 274 
Lessone, ,, ( ,, ), 224 
Levasseur, Mons., 63-66, 78, 80-82, 

116 
Ley, James, Earl of Marlborough, 

.52, 53 
Lilburne, Robert (Governor of 

Bahamas), 238-39 
Lima (Peru), 16, 17, 25 
Linhares, Conde de, 102 
Logwood, 201, 208-12, 226, 234, 

249 

Long, Edward, 127, 2S3 
,, Samuel, 226 

Lonvilliers, Mons. de, 81 

Lorin, Henri, 284 

Louis XIV., King of France, 9«. , 
116, 219, 257, 258, 266 n. 

Ludbury, Captain (buccaneer), 162 

Ludwell, Philip (Governor of Caro- 
lina), 253 

Lynch, Sir Thomas (Governor of 
Jamaica), in, 121, 197, 198,200- 
205, 209, 213, 216, 232-38, 243, 
and n., etc. 

Lyttleton, Sir Charles (Lieutenant- 
Governor of Jamaica), 106, 109, 
no, in, 112, 118, 127 



Madeira, 42 

Maggott, Captain (buccaneer), 224 

Maintenon, Marquis de, 222 

Maldonado de Aldana, 108 

Mansfield, Captain Edward (buc- 
caneer), 73, 131, and n., 134-36, 
138, 143) 163 »., 164. 273 

" Mansvelt," see Mansfield 

Maracaibo (Venezuela), 15, 22, 50, 
156-8, 159, 161, 210, 222, 267 



293 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 



Marcel, Gabriel, 285 

Margarita Island, 2, 15, 16, 38, 222 

,, patache, 15, 16, 19 and n. 
Margot, Port (Hispaniola), 64, 65, 

83, 84, 123 
Marie- Anne of Austria, Queen Regent 

of Spain, 141, 159, 184 «., 198, 

199, 208, 211 
Markham, William (Governor of 

Pennsylvania), 271 
Marlborough, Earl of, see Ley, James 
" Marston Moor," 87, 97, 98 and n., 

99 
Marteen, Captain David (buccaneer), 

134 
Martin, 81-82, 83 n. 
Martinique, 48, 67, 73, 74, 75, 220, 

246 «., 272, 282 
" Mary of Guildford," 36 n. 
Mary, Queen of England, 259 
Massachusetts, 252, 271 
Mattlotage, 69 
Medina Coeli, Duque de, 199 

,, de los Torres, Duque de, 
141 
Merida (Yucatan), 210, 245 
Mesnil, Captain (buccaneer), 274 
Mexico, see New Spain 
Michel, Captain (buccaneer), 274 
,, le Basque (buccaneer), 124, 
156 
Milton, John (Latin Secretary of 

State), 89 ». 
Mitchell, Captain (buccaneer), 108 n. 
Modyford, Colonel Charles, 203 

,, Sir James, 127, 137, 

143 «., 163 n. 
,, Sir Thomas (Governor of 

Jamaica), 119-23, 127, 
128, 131-35, 136 «., 137 
and «., 140, 142, 143 n,, 
144, etc. 
Moledi, Don Patricio, III 
Molesworth, Hendei (Lieutenant- 
Governor of Jamaica), 237 «., 248, 
249> 253-54, 255, 257 
Molina, Conde de, 158, 197 n. 
Mompos (New Granada), 264 
Mona, Island of, 20, 34 
Monck, Christopher, second Duke of 
Albemarle (Governor of 
Jamaica), 255-57 
,, George, first Duke of Albe- 
marle, 132, 133, 142, 
I43«., 154, 159 



Montagu, Edward, Earl of Sandwich, 

103, 141, 142 
Montemayor, Don Juan Francisco de, 

82 
Montespan, Marquise de, 2i8«. 
Montserrat, 48, 129 
Moralis, Don Pedro de, 105 
Moreton, Joseph (Governor of Caro- 
lina), 252 
Morgan, Captain (buccaneer), 235 
,, Colonel Blodre (buccaneer), 

163 n., 182 n. 
,, Colonel Edward, 120, 121, 
129, 130,133, I37«-, 143 
,, Sir Henry (buccaneer and 
Lieutenant - Governor of 
Jamaica), 73, 137 and n., 
x 43"96, 204-6, 210, 212- 
16, 222, 226, 227, 228, 
etc. 
,, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas, 
130 n., 137 n. 
Morris, Captain John (buccaneer), 

*37, 143. 161, 182 n., 273 
Mosquito Coast, 19, 55, 76, 138, 

245 
Munden, Captain Robert, 118 
Myngs, Captain Christopher, R.N., 

98 and n,, 99 and »., 105, 106, 

107, 108 and «., 109, 121 



Nata de los Santos (Darien), 

136 «., 191 n. 
Nau, Jean-David (buccaneer), 124 

and n. , 156, 157 
Navigation Laws, 99, 101 n, 102, 

214, 271 
"Navio del Oro," 17 
Negro slave-trade, 36-38 ; cf. also 

Clandestine trade 
Negroes, Assiento of, see Assiento 
Netherlands, truce of 1609, 52 
,, wars of, see War 

Nevill, Vice-Admiral John, 264, 265 
Nevis, 47, 63, 86, 129, 229 
New England, 86, 92,93, 116, 201, 

250, 272 
Newfoundland, 35, 265 
New Granada, 11, 16, 42, 232 
New Providence Island (Bahamas), 

237-39 
New Spain, 3, 10, 21, 22, 32, 33, 46, 

76, 90, in, etc. 
New York, 129, 201, 271 



294 



INDEX 



Nicaragua, 19, 76, 137, 162 

; , Lake, 16, 138 

Nimuegen, peace of, 240 
Nombrede Dios(Darien), I4«., 17 »., 

40 
Norris, Commodore Sir John, 265 



O'Brien, William, Earl of Inchi- 
quin (Governor of Jamaica), 257, 

259 

Ogeron, Bertrand d' (Governor of 
French Hispaniola), 118, 123-4, 
216, 217, 218, 239 

Olivares, Conde de, 9 n. 

Olonnais (buccaneer), see Nau, Jean- 
David 

Orinoco River, 2, 32»., 47, 85??., 
ill 

Oxenham, John, 40 

" Oxford," 155 



Pain, Captain Thomas (buccaneer), 

238and«., 239, 259 
Paine, Peter, 233-34 and n. , 238 n. 
Panama, city of, 10, 16, 17 and «., 
18, 40, 97, 120, 136 «., 
139, 140, etc. 
,, Isthmus of, see Darien 
,, President of, see Perez de 
Guzman 
Payta (Peru), 17, 188 
Penalva, Conde de, 113 
Penn, Admiral William, 85 and n. , 
86,87,93, 113 
,, William (proprietor of Penns.), 
271 
Pennsylvania, 271 

Perez de Guzman, Don Juan (Presi- 
dent of Panama), 139, 164, 
170 w., 184 n. ,186, 191 and 
n., 192 n. 
„ Diego, 44 
Pernambuco, 49 
Perry, Mr. 61 n. 
Peru, 3, 10, 11, 16, 17, 22, 25, 32, 

42, 46, etc. 
Petit, Captain (buccaneer), 274 
Petit-Goave (Hispaniola), 118, 119, 
124, 221, 241, 242, 243, 244, 247 
and «., 248, etc. 
Philip II.. King of Spain, 14, 30, 31, 

34, 37, 39, 4°, 46, 
101 



Philip III., King of Spain, 51 

,, IV., King of Spain, gn., 55, 
141 
Philippine Islands, 3, 21 
" Piece of eight," value of, 77 «. 
" Pie de Palo," see Heyn, Admiral 

Piet and Le Clerc, Francois 
Pirates, depredations in the East, 270, 
272 
,, laws against, see Laws 
,, trials of, 202, 203, 213-15, 
218, 226, 228, 229 
Pizarro, Francisco, 3, 46 
Place, Sieur de la (Deputy-Governor 

of Tortuga), 117, 124 
Plenneville, Clement de, 118 
Poincy, Mons. de (Governor of the 
French West Indies), 63, 64, 80, 
81 
Pointis, Sieur de, see Desjeans 
Pontchartrain, Louis Phelypeaux, 

Comtede, 262 
Port de Paix (Hispaniola), 65, 247 n. , 

261 
Porto Bello, II, 14, 15, 16, I7and«., 

18, 19, 23, 76, 143-54, etc. 
Porto Rico, 2, 20 and «., 22, 31 n., 

34, 35, 41, 46, 56, 57, etc. 
Port Royal (Carolina), 47, 252 

,, (Jamaica), 97, 98 and «., 
101, 107, 108 and «., 
Ill, 112, 121, 127, 128, 
etc. 
Pouancay, Mons. de (Governor of 
French Hispaniola), 216, 219, 220, 
221, 222, 239, 240, 244, 247, 248, 
etc. 
Prince, Captain Lawrence (buc- 
caneer), 162, 182 n. 
Privateers, laws against, see Laws 
Providence Company, 55, 59 and «., 

60, 61 n., 62, 64 n. 
Providence Island, 55 and «., 56 »., 
64, 76, 86, 135-7, 139-40, 143- 
163 and n. , etc. 
Puerta de Plata (Hispaniola), 115 
Puerto Cabello (Venezuela), 98 

,, Principe (Cuba), 177, 144 
and «., 145, 222 



Queen Regent of Spain, see 

Marie- Anne of Austria 
Quito, province of, see Equador 



295 



BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 



Raleigh, Sir Walter, 34, 40, 41, 
47,89 

Rancherias (New Granada), 16, 40 

Rausset, Sieur de, see Deschamps 

Raynal, Guillaume, Thomas- 

Francois, 283 

Red Sea, pirates in, see Pirates 

Rhode Island, 223, 251, 271 

Rich, Henry, Earl of Holland, 59 
,, Robert, Earl of Warwick, 50 
and n. , 52 

Rio Garta, 138 

Rio de la Hacha (New Granada), 38, 
40, 44, 93, 98*2., 161, 232, 
267 

Rio Nuevo (Jamaica), 91 

Riskinner, Captain Nicholas 
(Governor of Tortuga), 62 

Rivero Pardal, Manuel, 159, 161 

Roanoke Island (Carolina), 47 

Roatan Island, 76, 138 

Robertson, William, 285 

Rogers, Captain Thomas (buccaneer), 

174 «• 

Ronquillo, Don Pedro, 223 n. , 243 
Row, Captain (buccaneer), 224 
Roxas de Valle-Figueroa, Don 

Gabriel, 82-83 
Ruyter, Admiral Michel-Adriaanszoon 

van, 129 
Ryswick, treaty of, 266 n. 



Saba, 129, 130 and n. 

St. Augustine (Florida), 238, 251, 

252 
St. Christopher, see St. Kitts 
St. Eustatius, 48, 67, 129, 130 and ».. 

133, 143 
St. Jago de Cuba, 21, 42, 44, 91, 
100, 104-6, 108 «., 109, 
I4S» 159, etc. 
,, de la Vega (Jamaica), 50, 

85, 86, 234, 237 n. 
,, de los Cavalleros (His- 
paniola), 114- 15, 258 
St. Kitts, 47, 48, 50, 54, 56, 58, 60, 

63, 67, 80, etc. 
St. Laurent, Mons. de, 244, 247 n. 
St. Malo, corsairs of, 48 
St. Martins, 130 
St. Thomas, 235-7 
Salisbury, Earl of, see Cecil, Robert 
Samana, 77 n. 
Samballas Islands, 228 n. 



"Samson," 36 n. 

Sancti Spiritus (Cuba), 134, 135; 

and n. 
San Domingo, city of, gn., 21, 22, 

35, 37, 38, 39, 42, 
43, 60, 86, etc. 
, , French, see Hispaniola 

Sandwich, Earl of, see Montagu, 

Edward 
San Juan de Porto Rico, 21, 40, 41, 

49 
,, d'Ulloa, see Vera Cruz 
,, River (Nicaragua), 16, 136, 
138, 162 
San Lorenzo, castle of (Chagre), 164- 

8, 170 n, 193, 194 and n. 
San Lucar, 11, 13, 15, 20 
Santa Catalina, see Providence Island 
Santa Cruz, 20, 48, 56, 117 
Santa Marta (New Granada), 15, 40,. 
44, 93> 97, 161, 219-20, 226, 
267 
Santa Marta de la Vitoria (Tabasco), 
139M. 
,, Tomas (Orinoco), III, 222 
Sasi Arnoldo, Don Christopher, 91,. 

105 

" Satisfaction," 156 n. 

Sawkins, Captain (buccaneer), 225, 
226 

Scaliger, Joseph-Juste, 28 

Scelle, Georges, 3, 285 

Searle, Daniel (Governor of Bar- 
badoes), 85 n. 

Searles, Captain Robert (buccaneer), 
122, 131 

Sedgwick, Major - General Robert, 
96, 104 

Seignelay, Marquis de, see Colbert 

Seville, 11, 22, 26, 54, 103, 106, 109, 
159;?., 207, etc. 

Sharp, Captain Bartholomew (buc- 
caneer), 223,224, 225 »., 228, 229, 

245 
Shirley, Sir Anthony, 85 
" Sloop-trade," 27 
Smart, Captain (buccaneer), 273 
Smith, Major Samuel, 137, 139, 140 
Sore, Jacques, 42, 45 
Southey, Thomas, 283 
Spain, colonial laws, 5, 10, 12, 13, 24- 
, , colonial system, iff. 
,, commercial system, 6-13 
,, cruelties to English mariners,. 
29, 53-54, 88, 89 w., 207 
296 



INDEX 



Spain, cruelties to Indians, 4, 9, 10, 
32, 33. 89 n. 
,, decline of, iff., 46 
,, discovery and exploration in 

South America, 2-3 
,, exclusion of foreigners from 

Spanish Indies, 24 
,, privateers of, 207, 211 and «. 
,, trade relations with England, 

101-104 
,, treaty of 1667 with England, 

141 
,, ,, 1670 with England, 

196-7, 200, 209 
,, truce of 1609 with the Nether- 
lands, see Netherlands 
,, venality of Spanish colonial 

governors, 26 n. 
,, weakness of Spanish ships, 23 
Spragge, Captain, R.N., 254 
Stanley, Captain (buccaneer), 140 
Stapleton, Sir William (Governor of 

Leeward Islands), 234, 236, 237 
Stedman, Captain (buccaneer), 131 

and n. 
Style, John, 153 n. 



Tabasco River, 138, 139M. 

Tavoga Island, 179, 188 

Tavogilla Island, 179, 18S 

Taylor, John, 102 

Terrier, Jean, 42 

Thibault, 81-82, 83 «. 

Thomas, Dalby, 33 

Thornbury, Walter, 284 

Thurloe, John (Secretary of State), 

104 
Thurston, Captain (buccaneer), 201 
Tobago, 15, 48,67, 131, 268 
Toledo, Don Federico de, 54, 58 
Tolu (New Granada), 97, 267 
Tortola, 130 
Tortuga, 2, 55, 58-66, 69, 70, 73, 77, 

80, 81, 113, etc. 
Trade, clandestine, see Clandestine 

trade 
Treasure fleets, 13-24, 31, 85 ; cf. 

also Flota and Galleons 
Treval, Mons. de, 82 
Trinidad, 2, 15, 32«., 46, 131, 222 
■"Trompense, La," 233-36, 238 «., 
248, 249, 251 n. 
,, La Nouvelle," 236 n. 



Truxillo (Honduras), 21, 22, 50, 77 

138, 222 
Turrialva (Costa Rica), 136 



Utrecht, Treaty of, 272 



Vache, Isle la, see Isle la Vache 

Vaisseaux de registre, II, 22 and n. 

Vaissiere, Pierre de, 284 

Valladolid (Yucatan), 210 

Valle-Figueroa, Don Gabriel Roxas 
de, see Roxas de Valle-Figueroa 

Van Horn, Captain Nicholas (buc- 
caneer), 241-43, 248 

Vaughan, John, Lord (Governor of 
Jamaica), 205, 211, 212-22, 232 

Venables, General Robert, 85 and »., 
86, 87, 88, 89,96, 113 

Venezuela, 16, 23, 156 

Venta Cruz (Darien), I7«., 164, 
170 «., 174 and «., 177 »., 192W. 

193 
Vera Cruz (New Spain), 11, 12 w., 

14, 21, 22, 38, 49, 103, 109, III, 

etc., 241 
Veragua, 136 and n. 
Vernon, Admiral Edward, 195 
Verpre, Captain (buccaneer), 274 
Vervins, Treaty of, 48 
Viande boticannie, 66 
Vigneron, Captain (buccaneer), 274 
Villa de Mosa (Tabasco), 138 and n. 
Villalba y Toledo, Don Francisco de, 

77 
Villars, Marquis de, 9 n. 
Virgin Islands, 40, 235, 236 
Virginia, 47, 51, 54, 112, 129, 201, 

207, 272 



War between England and France, 

1666-67, 131, 141 
War between England and Nether- 
lands, 1665-67, 127-41 
War between France and Nether- 
lands, 1674-78, 219^ 
War of the Spanish Succession, 271- 
72 
,, Succession of the Palati- 

nate, 2$%ff. 
Watson, Sir Francis, 257 
Watts, Elias (Governor of Tortuga), 
114, 116 and «., 117 



297 



■3. - & 

BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES 



Watts, Colonel William (Governor of 

St. Kitts), 130 n. 
Weiss, Charles, 285 
West Indies, see Indies, West 
Whitstone, Sir Thomas (buccaneer), 

140, 273 
Wilgress, Captain, 201 
William III., King of England, 257, 

258 
Williams, Captain John, alias Yankey 
(buccaneer), 235, 254;?. 
274 
,, Captain Morris (buc- 
caneer), 122 and «. 
Williamson, Sir Joseph (Secretary of 

State), 213 «., 217 
Willoughby, William, Lord (Governor 

of Barbadoes), 131 
Wilmot, Commodore Robert, 261 
Windebank, Sir Francis (Secretary of 

State, 53 



Windsor, Thomas, Lord (Governor 
of Jamaica), 97, 101 and n. , 104, 
105, 106-7, in> "7.< H8, 137 

Winslow, Edward (Commissioner of 
Jamaica), 85 n. 

Winter, Sir William, 40 

Witherborn, Captain Francis (buc- 
caneer), 202 

Wormeley, Captain Christopher 
(Governor of Tortuga), 59, 62 
and n. 



Yallahs, Captain (buccaneer) 201, 

211 
"Yankey," see Williams, Captain 

John 
Yucatan, 2, 23, 82«., 208, 210, 211 



Zuniga, Don Pedro de, 51 



298 



